?? about notice of a significant event

This may be an uneducated question but I'll ask anyway.

If it was night, sleeping time for most, and there was a BIG event ... nuclear, some sort of major terrorist event, something that destroys a city, etc ... would the emergency sirens be put on for parts of the country NOT immediately effected?

If Houston gets blown up, will I be somehow awakened in Indiana?

Or, will TPTB just let me sleep through the night & get the news in the morning?

Thank you,
yarnball

My assumption is that you would sleep through the night, even if you lived out side of Houston (but far enough that the blast didn't wake you).

What emergency sirens? -- Meaning are you sure you even have any (and if you do, do they work, and does anyone manage them)? Some places have sirens, some places don't. We do have a siren, but it is not loud enough to even hear inside (found out during a recent tornado 'sighting' -- which was by the way the first time I have ever heard one in this town despite many 'sighting' in the past).

oops! Didn't mean for this to be in Bomb Shelter ... please move it for me.

yarnball

I think your power would go off so if you are a light sleeper you would wake up when the power goes out. I believe that if you take out that much of an area it would cause other power plants on the grid to go out one by one. I could be wrong so below is why I think the grid would fail.



This system works great, and it can be highly reliable for years at a time. However, there can be times, particularly when there is high demand, that the interconnected nature of the grid makes the entire system vulnerable to collapse. Here's how that happens:

Let's say that the grid is running pretty close to its maximum capacity. Something causes a power plant to suddenly trip off line. The "something" might be anything from a serious lightning strike to a bearing failure and subsequent fire in a generator. When that plant disconnects from the grid, the other plants connected to it have to spin up to meet the demand. If they are all near their maximum capacity, then they cannot handle the extra load. To prevent themselves from overloading and failing, they will disconnect from the grid as well. That only makes the problem worse, and dozens of plants eventually disconnect. That leaves millions of people without power.

The same thing can happen if a big transmission line fails. In 1996 there was a major blackout in the western U.S. and Canada because the wires of a major transmission line sagged into some trees and shorted out. When that transmission line failed, all of its load shifted to neighboring transmission lines. They then overloaded and failed, and the overload cascaded through the grid.

In nearly every major blackout, the situation is the same. One piece of the system fails, then the pieces near it cannot handle the increased load caused by the failure, so they fail. The multiple failures make the problem worse and worse and a large area ends up in the dark.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...d&ndsp=20&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1B2GGFB_enUS236&sa=N

we have an emergency weather radio that is suppose to alert to also other emergency situations - it goes off very loud and insitent so guess that would alert during the night or day in the house - but I wonder how we would even know our power is out when we have been outside for a few hours to half a day and not using any power or water - water at some places will not run out for alot of the day so that does not tell us also - some times we do not have the radio on so do not know that way and our local small radio station sometimes goes off the air for no reason at all I can tell so that would not help

Scott Mayland said:

I think your power would go off so if you are a light sleeper you would wake up when the power goes out.

Click to expand...

We have a plug in alarm clock with a battery backup -- but it has a special alarm that goes off after the power goes out for a while (and it has been running on battery power). Not perfect, but a good back up in case I do not wake up (as I typically do) when the power goes out.

nannygoat said:

we have an emergency weather radio that is suppose to alert to also other emergency situations - it goes off very loud and insitent.

Click to expand...

We have one of these too, but have to keep it turned off during a good portion of the year, because it goes off for every warning, which can be a few dozen times a night several nights a week. It is really unfortunate.

Depends on how active and aware the local EMA folks are...who are in charge of activating the warning systems. Could it be a local threat? Then turn'em on. Not gonna affect this county or that city? Leave'em off...

I learned about the 9/11 attacks from a phone call from my boss...because I had worked the closing shift at the store and gotten home REALLY late...

Nukes? Terror? The news will get around faster by media and word of mouth, than MOST EMA admins across the country....

We've already seen that....

Rich

deleted

I don't think you can count on being alerted at any time.

They will stave off any media reports to avoid panic and even if the alerts got out, they wont be in time for most.

In a scenario where the Gov't is tracking an incoming missle, they wont put off the sirens because they will likely lose more lives in the panic then in the initial impact outside of the impact zone.

SurvivalRing said:

Depends on how active and aware the local EMA folks are...who are in charge of activating the warning systems. Could it be a local threat? Then turn'em on. Not gonna affect this county or that city? Leave'em off...

I learned about the 9/11 attacks from a phone call from my boss...because I had worked the closing shift at the store and gotten home REALLY late...

Nukes? Terror? The news will get around faster by media and word of mouth, than MOST EMA admins across the country....

We've already seen that....

Rich

Click to expand...

I learned about 9/11 from my daughter and I was sleeping coming off shift work like Rich, She heard it on her car radio going to school and turned around and came home and got me up and we watched it on tv, I think the .gov wouldn't try to alert the sheeple so as not to cause panic. As for the City/town you live in I don't know how they would alert you short of driving down the streets with a mega phone and sirens???? I doubt if they would have the manpower.Now, this would be if the city/town suffered a massive power outage.

Something that big will cause huge negative inner vibrations. People wake up and can't get back to sleep "knowing" something is wrong. More than likely you'll turn on the TV or go immediately to TB2K or news or something.

This happens to us all, all the time. Our intuition starts yelling at us. Don't worry. Chances are good you won't sleep through a crisis. In fact, prayer is good for something like this. Just ask to be alerted if something serious should occur. It works.

For those folk who HAVE emergency sirens they WON'T be activated unless the event threatens them LOCALLY.

THe majority of us have NO sirens so it's a moot point.

The nearest town has emergency sirens. I happened to be right across the street from the firehouse one day and I must have jumped 6 feet when that thing went off.

The problem is they set it off every day at noon and at ten pm (there is a curfew) and whenever they are testing something, and at random times, and on holidays. When there was recently a tornado....nobody paid attention to the siren that cries wolf.

It seems most of y'all think as I do ... that you won't know anything about a nuclear/terrorist event until you find out about it yourself through a call or randomly turning on the TV.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

yarnball

As already noted, if it's a huge explosion (and not just a small explosion/chemical/bio attack), then the electric grid may be compromised...

And if that's the case, you could probably count on, at the very least, a loss of power for a second or two... So, if you have a UPS hooked up to power, it'll beep if it loses a continual electric connection...and that should wake you up.

But I think your point was...if anything bad happened, would the country be alerted... and I don't think so.

DH is part of a CERT team, we'd probably get a call. I'd hook up with a local CERT team or make friends with a member!
RD

Now, I need to state this...having worked in radio, and TV master control, and other areas...

The Emergency Alert system now in place, is completely automated, and can be set for a single area (S.A.M.E. tech), an entire region, or the entire country....if needed. I've even pushed the button in master control (as required and planned beforehand) to run the TEST alert on occasion....

It works...

We see localized alerts all the time...weather, amber alerts, civil emergencies, etc.

I've never seen (thank God) a nationwide alert of a real event. But, I do know the technology, and the powers that be (meaning the scientists, technicians, and even government wonks) are working on the ability (not available yet) to alert every tv, radio, cell phone, pager, etc. with the same local capability or nationwide coverage...

It's got a ways to go....I pray to God we never need it...

Rich

Rescuedog said:

DH is part of a CERT team, we'd probably get a call. I'd hook up with a local CERT team or make friends with a member!
RD

Click to expand...

Same here....and I'm part of local radio broadcasting as well...

Rich

There used to be (I'm showing my age here...) an alert system that worked by changing the frequency of the power line (IIRC, down to 50 Hz). A plug in detector would sense this and sound off a buzzer to let the people nearby know to tune in to 640 or 1,240 on the AM dial. I have no idea if these units still exist, or if the system would ever be used again, but it was at the ready during the cold war.

Right now, I think that EAS might be used, IF they want us to know about something. I really think that the regular news will probably have it first, if nothing more than to just get the most ratings.

Loup

There's a big push to start using sattelite based cellular technology in a nationwide program.You will at some point see this as the comm component of the new NRF (national response framework) As it is now, in our county we are alerted for callout by the CEAN text messaging system on our cellphones. Roam Secure is the company that makes the system.
If something nuclear goes off in my local area; we won't need the sirens.......We'll look for the heat, the light and the shockwave

Hansa44 said:

Something that big will cause huge negative inner vibrations. People wake up and can't get back to sleep "knowing" something is wrong. More than likely you'll turn on the TV or go immediately to TB2K or news or something.

This happens to us all, all the time. Our intuition starts yelling at us. Don't worry. Chances are good you won't sleep through a crisis. In fact, prayer is good for something like this. Just ask to be alerted if something serious should occur. It works.

Click to expand...

I've had this exact thing actually happen to me back in 1998 when my dad was in the hospital sick with cancer. I awoke all of a sudden around 3:00 a.m. and I could not go back to sleep like I usually could. I tried to ignore it but it was practically impossible. I was alone at the time. Nobody called me on the phone or visited the house in the middle of the night. I just simply woke up and could not go back to sleep. I stopped fighting the intuition, got dressed and left for the hospital around 4:30 and got to the hospital about an hour later. As it turned out, my dad had endured a very rough night and my mom was exhausted from trying to help him. I showed up unannounced, helped my parents out any way I possibly could and, a few hours later, the trouble ended and I was able to run some errands for my mom that she would not have been able to fulfill if i had not shown up earlier that morning.


I think there's something to be said for people having a "6th sense" or "gut instinct" during troubled times. The 64,000 dollar question is will they listen to it (and act upon it) when they hear it or will they ignore it only to regret that decision later?

I was too far away from the only nuclear explosion I witnessed to hear it. Had I not know what I was watching I wouldn't have known what it was. Had I not made a point of getting up to see it, I would have slept right through it.

I have a friend who witnessed Trinity. He had no idea what it was, but knew it was big and loud. But he was pretty close to it.

Loup, Conelrad (the system you're thinking of) died decades ago. It's now up to the EAS system. I do keep a Oregon Scientific WR108 portable S.A.M.E. weatherradio next to my bed on its charger. I've programmed it to alert me if any of the counties surrounding mine get an alert, as well as up to 50 miles to the west of my county. It given me plenty of warning many times in the past.

If the power goes out here, I get plenty of warning, as all the uninterruptable power supplies start squalling alarms, so I can shut everything down. If something brings down the grid, I'll know it. I usually shut everything down, then hit the radios for info.

Micah68 said:

The nearest town has emergency sirens. I happened to be right across the street from the firehouse one day and I must have jumped 6 feet when that thing went off.

The problem is they set it off every day at noon and at ten pm (there is a curfew) and whenever they are testing something, and at random times, and on holidays. When there was recently a tornado....nobody paid attention to the siren that cries wolf.

Click to expand...

I've lived in two small towns in California that did the same noon siren thing ..... annoying as hell, and like you mention no one pays attention to them since it's always going off at odd hours in addition to noon.

I kept pointing that out to people, but they simply would gape at me with slack jaws and a dumb look in their vacant eyes. One guy insisted that the fire dept needed it to tell the trucks where to go .... apparently he'd never considered the idea that modern fire depts have other means of communication.

Emergency sirens would be a good idea if advertised and only tested once a month at a set time.

SurvivalRing said:

Now, I need to state this...having worked in radio, and TV master control, and other areas...

The Emergency Alert system now in place, is completely automated, and can be set for a single area (S.A.M.E. tech), an entire region, or the entire country....if needed. I've even pushed the button in master control (as required and planned beforehand) to run the TEST alert on occasion....

It works...

We see localized alerts all the time...weather, amber alerts, civil emergencies, etc.

I've never seen (thank God) a nationwide alert of a real event. But, I do know the technology, and the powers that be (meaning the scientists, technicians, and even government wonks) are working on the ability (not available yet) to alert every tv, radio, cell phone, pager, etc. with the same local capability or nationwide coverage...

It's got a ways to go....I pray to God we never need it...

Rich

Click to expand...

Here...read this attached PDF document...this is where we're headed nationwide...

Rich

SurvivalRing said:

Now, I need to state this...having worked in radio, and TV master control, and other areas...

The Emergency Alert system now in place, is completely automated, and can be set for a single area (S.A.M.E. tech), an entire region, or the entire country....if needed. I've even pushed the button in master control (as required and planned beforehand) to run the TEST alert on occasion....

It works...

We see localized alerts all the time...weather, amber alerts, civil emergencies, etc.

I've never seen (thank God) a nationwide alert of a real event. But, I do know the technology, and the powers that be (meaning the scientists, technicians, and even government wonks) are working on the ability (not available yet) to alert every tv, radio, cell phone, pager, etc. with the same local capability or nationwide coverage...

It's got a ways to go....I pray to God we never need it...

Rich

Click to expand...

Ah geeze you come along and have the right answer. I was so enjoying all the other posts.

If your Weather radio is NOT, S.A.M.E. capable get a new one, seriously!

You can program a S.A.M.E. capable Weather alert radio specifically for the type of alerts & location of those alerts you want. You will not be bothered by other undesired alerts.

The government has decided that the S.A.M.E. capable Weather Alert radios are the official way to relay emergency information to the general public.

Let me be very specific....S.A.M.E. capable Weather Alert radios...are "THE OFFICIAL" way the government will let you know what the hell is going on.

If you don't have one GET ONE!

Emergency Alert System (EAS) August 19, 2002

# The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on February 26, 2002, issued a Report and Order (R&O) amending the Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules.

The R&O became effective May 16, 2002.

# The FCC adopted a critical provision permitting broadcasters to preselect the state and local EAS messages they wish to display and log, giving broadcasters the ability to reduce unknown event code operator alarms and unnecessary log entries.

# The FCC also adopted numerous new civil emergency, weather and natural disaster event codes and NWS' marine area location codes.

# Broadcaster’s EAS encoder/decoder equipment must be upgraded to implement many of the changes in this R&O. If EAS equipment is not upgraded, the newly adopted event codes will cause unknown event code operator alarms.

# NWS will implement new codes in 2003 with months of advance notice after broadcasters have opportunity to upgrade EAS encoder/decoder equipment.

# NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) and the EAS use the same digital protocols, and NWR is the primary means for NWS alerts to activate the Emergency Alert System.

# Check online at www.nws.noaa.gov/om/NWS_EAS.htm for new information as NWS refines plans to introduce the new event and marine area location codes.

General Info: http://www.weather.gov/nwr/nwrsame.htm


All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio (NWR)
http://www.weather.gov/nwr/resources/nwr_allhazards.pdf

NWR is an all-hazards public warning system, broadcasting forecasts, warnings and
emergency information 24 hours a day directly to the public.

“All Hazards” messages include:
Natural (e.g., tornado, hurricane, floods, earthquakes)
Technological accidents (e.g., chemical release, oil spill, nuclear power plant emergencies, maritime accidents, train derailments)
AMBER alerts
Terrorist attacks

Non-weather emergency messages will be broadcast over NWR when:
(1) public safety is involved,
(2) the message comes from an official government source, and
(3) time is critical.

The National Response Plan assigns responsibility to the National Weather Service
(NWS) to broadcast non-weather emergency messages.

The red portion above is why you need a SAME Weather radio, it is the official way the government intends to alert the public.

Source: http://www.weather.gov/os/NWS_EAS.shtml

EAS Event (NWR-SAME) Codes

Weather-Related Events NWR-SAME Code :Status
Blizzard Warning BZW Operational
Coastal Flood Watch CFA Operational
Coastal Flood Warning CFW Operational
Dust Storm Warning DSW Operational
Flash Flood Watch FFA Operational
Flash Flood Warning FFW Operational
Flash Flood Statement FFS Operational
Flood Watch FLA Operational
Flood Warning FLW Operational
Flood Statement FLS Operational
High Wind Watch HWA Operational
High Wind Warning HWW Operational
Hurricane Watch HUA Operational
Hurricane Warning HUW Operational
Hurricane Statement HLS Operational
Severe Thunderstorm Watch SVA Operational
Severe Thunderstorm Warning SVR Operational
Severe Weather Statement SVS Operational
Special Marine Warning SMW Operational
Special Weather Statement SPS Operational
Tornado Watch TOA Operational
Tornado Warning TOR Operational
Tropical Storm Watch TRA Operational
Tropical Storm Warning TRW Operational
Tsunami Watch TSA Operational
Tsunami Warning TSW Operational
Winter Storm Watch WSA Operational
Winter Storm Warning WSW Operational

Non-Weather-Related Events NWR-SAME Code :Status
National Codes-Required
Emergency Action Notification EAN Not currently implemented on NWR
Emergency Action Termination EAT Not currently implemented on NWR
National Information Center NIC Operational
State and Local Codes-Optional
Avalanche Watch AVA Operational
Avalanche Warning AVW Operational
Child Abduction Emergency CAE Operational
Civil Danger Warning CDW Operational
Civil Emergency Message CEM Operational
Earthquake Warning EQW Operational
Evacuation Immediate EVI Operational
Fire Warning FRW Operational
Hazardous Materials Warning HMW Operational
Law Enforcement Warning LEW Operational
Local Area Emergency LAE Operational
911 Telephone Outage Emergency TOE Operational
Nuclear Power Plant Warning NUW Operational
Radiological Hazard Warning RHW Operational
Shelter in Place Warning SPW Operational
Volcano Warning VOW Operational

Administrative Events NWR-SAME Code :Status
Administrative Message ADR Operational
National Periodic Test NPT Not currently implemented on NWR
Network Message Notification NMN Not currently implemented on NWR
Practice/Demo Warning DMO Operational
Required Monthly Test RMT Operational
Required Weekly Test RWT Operational

Naming Convention for EAS Event Codes
The FCC Report and Order which became effective May 16, 2002, established naming conventions for EAS event codes. In most cases, and for all future codes to be approved, the third letter of all hazardous state and local event codes is limited to one of four letters:
_. "W" for WARNINGS
_. "A" for WATCHES
_. "E" for EMERGENCIES
_. "S" for STATEMENTS

Note: The existing event codes for Tornado Warning (TOR), Severe Thunderstorm Warning (SVR) and Evacuation Immediate (EVI) will not be changed to conform to this naming convention.

_. A WARNING is an event that alone poses a significant threat to public safety and/or property, probability of occurrence and location is high, and the onset time is relatively short.
_. A WATCH meets the classification of a warning, but either the onset time, probability of occurrence, or location is uncertain.
_. An EMERGENCY is an event that, by itself, would not kill or injure or do property damage, but indirectly may cause other things to happen that result in a hazard. For example, a major power or telephone loss in a large city alone is not a direct hazard, but disruption to other critical services could create a variety of conditions that could directly threaten public safety.
A STATEMENT is a message contaning follow up information to a warning, watch, or emergency.

BigBadBossyDog said:

The sirens in Indiana would go off if Houston blew?

or . . . .

Listen to your negative inner vibrations?

What are you people smoking?

Click to expand...

Yeah!

Why wake people up when they are not in danger?

The sirens around here are tested on Wednesday noon, weekly in storm season, once a month the rest of the year, more or less, I can't remember.

If those sirens went off for every disaster in the country, I'd take 'em out.

ceeblue said:

Yeah!

Why wake people up when they are not in danger?

The sirens around here are tested on Wednesday noon, weekly in storm season, once a month the rest of the year, more or less, I can't remember.

If those sirens went off for every disaster in the country, I'd take 'em out.

Click to expand...

The advantage of the new S.A.M.E. Weather radio, is that you can set if to alert only the particular types of warning and in very specific areas.

The coverage area of most Transmitters extend to several counties or even most of the state.

With the SAME codes you can pick to alert in ONLY your area, eliminating alerts for surrounding areas if not appropriate.

Hansa44 said:

Something that big will cause huge negative inner vibrations. People wake up and can't get back to sleep "knowing" something is wrong. More than likely you'll turn on the TV or go immediately to TB2K or news or something.

This happens to us all, all the time. Our intuition starts yelling at us. Don't worry. Chances are good you won't sleep through a crisis. In fact, prayer is good for something like this. Just ask to be alerted if something serious should occur. It works.

Click to expand...

I'm a bit thick when it comes to inner negative vibrations. On 9/11, I was in the grocery store very early. I left my phone in the car, and as I shopped I noticed everyone else was on their phone. I was annoyed and thought they all must be very important!

Anyway, when I got to my car my phone was ringing and my Mom was asking about my friend Ellen who worked in the towers, she said something about another friend trying to locate her. Okay, now I'm more annoyed. Who the heck cares where she is, she's a grown woman who travels alot.

My phone rings again and my sister (in Germany) calls to tell me about a plane that hit the Trade Tower, I'm thinking so a Cessna hit an antenna-no big deal. Still annoyed and wishing my phone would stop ringing.

I pull into my driveway followed by three other cars belonging to friends, and I still don't get it.

Nope, no inner negative vibrations here! Someone will have to call me.

Yarnball said:

If it was night, sleeping time for most, and there was a BIG event ... nuclear, some sort of major terrorist event, something that destroys a city, etc ... would the emergency sirens be put on for parts of the country NOT immediately effected?

If Houston gets blown up, will I be somehow awakened in Indiana?

Or, will TPTB just let me sleep through the night & get the news in the morning?

Thank you,
yarnball

Click to expand...

Your first notice of a REALLY big event will be that cars go racing past your house, police and fire sirens sound, neighbors come out into their front yards and pound on your door or call if the phones are still up.

I have no doubt that the gov will transmit civil alerts on weather radio frequencies as long as it can. FWIW, my little boombox radio is tuned to my city's emergency info station so it's ready to go during an earthquake or some such. Nationwide EMP will likely knock out all but the isolated cb and ham operator and military communications.

Anyone, anywhere, can receive an Emergency Alert System Civil Emergency Message, during a blackout, at 3:00 am, while you are sleeping and not recive unwanted warnings from other counties.

Buy a All Hazards S.A.M.E. Weather Alert Radio with batery backup. Under $50.00.

I'm sorry, if you don't have one of these, then you are simply not prepared.

The only problem is, is that the EAS was -not- used during 9/11. Google 911 & EAS for some supposed explanations.

I still don't understand why TPTB didn't use the EAS. Despite all the media warnings I would still like to know what the "official" government guidence during 9/11 would have been.

Information is power.

Folks,

Here is an example of exactly WHAT you need to have on your person, on a near 24/7 routine.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MIDLAND-74-250C...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

SPECIFICATIONS:

BRAND NEW
MODEL # 74-250C
ORIGINAL MIDLAND BRAND-LEADERS IN THE INDUSTRY

• S.A.M.E. technology helps eliminate false alarms
• Receives NOAA weather broadcasts on 7 frequencies
• Over 95% USA coverage
• Digital panel displays up to 56 messages
• Built-in fahrenheit/celcius thermometer
• Freeze warning alert
• Dual alarm clock with snoozE
• 12/24 HOUR CLOCK
• 9 memory settings
• Water resistant
• In-unit battery charging
• For more download product manual
• 3 YEAR WARRANTY

I just bought another, so my wife and I each have one.

I picked the new one off ebay, for $30 and change, including shipping, by sniping an auction WAY early this morning...around 5am.

Go to ebay, and search for

MIDLAND 74-250C

or

weather alert radio s.a.m.e.

http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/...=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp=

In this day and age, with threats coast to coast hanging over our heads on a daily basis, having one of those next to your multitool and minimag flashlight, is about as prudent and sane as we all need to be...and with it, you'll have the capability to be totally situationally aware of nearby threats.

Check it out, get one for the home, car, and your pocket.

Rich

If you live near a nuclear power plant, here are the alert classifications:

* Notification of Unusual Event - Under this category, events are in process or have occurred which indicate potential degradation in the level of safety of the plant. No release of radioactive material requiring offsite response or monitoring is expected unless further degradation occurs.

* Alert - If an alert is declared, events are in process or have occurred which involve an actual or potential substantial degradation in the level of safety of the plant. Any releases of radioactive material from the plant are expected to be limited to a small fraction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protective action guides (PAGs) .

* Site Area Emergency - A site area emergency involves events in process or which have occurred that result in actual or likely major failures of plant functions needed for protection of the public. Any releases of radioactive material are not expected to exceed the EPA PAGs except near the site boundary.

* General Emergency - A general emergency involves actual or imminent substantial core damage or melting of reactor fuel with the potential for loss of containment integrity. Radioactive releases during a general emergency can reasonably be expected to exceed the EPA PAGs for more than the immediate site area.

Click to expand...

For anything above the "unusual Event" status, the plant is required to notify local government agencies and the NRC.

http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/emerg-preparedness/emerg-classification.html

SurvivalRing said:

Folks,

Here is an example of exactly WHAT you need to have on your person, on a near 24/7 routine.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MIDLAND-74-250C...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

SPECIFICATIONS:

BRAND NEW
MODEL # 74-250C

ORIGINAL MIDLAND BRAND-LEADERS IN THE INDUSTRY

• S.A.M.E. technology helps eliminate false alarms
• Receives NOAA weather broadcasts on 7 frequencies
• Over 95% USA coverage
• Digital panel displays up to 56 messages
• Built-in fahrenheit/celcius thermometer
• Freeze warning alert
• Dual alarm clock with snoozE
• 12/24 HOUR CLOCK
• 9 memory settings
• Water resistant
• In-unit battery charging
• For more download product manual
• 3 YEAR WARRANTY

I just bought another, so my wife and I each have one.

I picked the new one off ebay, for $30 and change, including shipping, by sniping an auction WAY early this morning...around 5am.

Go to ebay, and search for

MIDLAND 74-250C

or

weather alert radio s.a.m.e.

http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/...=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp=

In this day and age, with threats coast to coast hanging over our heads on a daily basis, having one of those next to your multitool and minimag flashlight, is about as prudent and sane as we all need to be...and with it, you'll have the capability to be totally situationally aware of nearby threats.

Check it out, get one for the home, car, and your pocket.

Rich

Click to expand...

+1

Great post!

Hermit said:

I've lived in two small towns in California that did the same noon siren thing ..... annoying as hell, and like you mention no one pays attention to them since it's always going off at odd hours in addition to noon.

I kept pointing that out to people, but they simply would gape at me with slack jaws and a dumb look in their vacant eyes. One guy insisted that the fire dept needed it to tell the trucks where to go .... apparently he'd never considered the idea that modern fire depts have other means of communication.

Emergency sirens would be a good idea if advertised and only tested once a month at a set time.

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Most "old time" volunteer firehouses still use the horn/siren to alert its members with daily tests at set times.

However, I still think that just because the systems are in place to alert people that they wont be used. I live in the NYC area and lost many co-workers on 9/11 and was home that day for a school meeting. Not one alert system went off. If it wasnt because the first impact was caught by news cameras as it happened, I doubt they would have alerted anyone in time. Many people were saved not because of alarms or alerts, but because family members were home watching TV and told their family members to get out, it was terrorism. They knew what was happening because of family, not because of any alert system in place.

Still others had that "sense" in Tower 2. Though there was nothing going on in their building when Tower 1 got hit, they got out anyway because their gut told them something wasn't right. It saved their lives. Still others sat there and did nothing, went back to work. Others looked to their bosses, who were busier finishing up conference calls and didnt want to evacuate. That cost them their lives.

If you're a sheeple, you are going to follow the crowd and it will cost you your life. You need to be alert at all times and know where you are, how to get out and when to move! It can happen anywhere and you can't let that consciousness down simply because you are in a familiar place like work, home or the supermarket.