Hurricane Ida updates

Sun Sep 5 06:01:41 UTC 2021

On Sun, 5 Sep 2021, Eric Kuhnke wrote:
> During the peak of the rain storm in NJ+NY (see flooding deaths referenced
> in previous email), the wireless emergency alert systems were sending,
> simultaneously:
> 
> 1) TORNADO WARNING SEEK SHELTER NOW GO TO BASEMENT [1]
> 
> 2) FLOOD WARNING SEEK HIGH GROUND GET OUT OF BASEMENTS [2]

The National Weather Service uses pre-scripted templates, with some 
customization.  The problem with pre-scripting is it never covers every 
situation. On the other hand, NWS keeps precise records of the exact text 
used in every weather alert sent. There are sometimes lawsuits about 
weather warnings.

The NWS tornado script does mention sheltering in a basement or interior 
room.

The NWS flood warning script mentions travel and fleeing flooding (no 
mention of basements or higher ground).

I did check the actual NWS alert messages sent.  One problem was the 
WEA message did not use the FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY template, only the 
WARNING script. Although I doubt that made much of a difference in this 
case.

The pre-scripted message templates https://www.weather.gov/wrn/wea360

I don't know if other alerting sources did. Android and IOS emergency 
alert warning interfaces are amazingly bad, considering Google and Apple 
hire some of the best user interface designers in the world. Its very 
confusing which alert message came from which App, SMS or WEA. I also 
don't know why Android and IOS sends the WEA Attention Tones through 
headphones instead of using the external speaker or ringer for the 
Attention Signal. A lot of people complain about their ears being blasted 
by the attention signal when listening with headphones. The attention 
signal is to get your attention when your phone is across the room, not 
when you are wearing headphones.

The NWS is also getting better, activating WEA only for more targeted, 
destructive weather events. In 2017, during Hurricane Harvey in Houston 
NWS issued a 157 tornado warnings and 134 flash flood warnings in the 
same hurricane warning area. While a few warnings during Hurricane Harvey 
were for very destructive weather events, most were not.  The very 
destructive warnings got lost in the noise.

I don't have a final count for NYC for Hurricane Ida, but there were a lot 
fewer warnings for catastrophic/destructive events (maybe a dozen). Now 
the less destructive warnings don't activate WEA.