As the death toll from the Texas floods continues to rise, a conversation about emergency alert system failures is spreading across the country. Officials in Connecticut want residents to know where to get information in a weather catastrophe.
Connecticut has multiple channels to get alerts out. They vary in frequency of messaging.
CTAlert, the country’s first statewide emergency alert system, launched in 2009.
State Emergency Management Director William Turner said only around 7% of the state population is subscribed.
“We only really reserve that system for those situations where there's some sort of larger statewide incident or emergency that we need to get information out,” Turner said. “The nice thing about the system is that it's all customizable, so you can pick and choose what type of alerts you want. There's also the ability for you to pick times, they call them blackout periods, where you can basically say, ‘I don't want any alerts during this time,’ so it doesn't interrupt you.”
Sign up for CTAlert here.
Separate from CTAlert is the alarm that goes off on everybody’s phone during a flash flood or Amber Alert. That’s the FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, which does not require an opt-in. It sends out Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).
Connecticut also uses the Emergency Alert System to broadcast emergency alerts over broadcast television, AM/ FM radio and NOAA Weather Radio.
Turner said he knows the alerts can cause alert fatigue, which may lead people to ignore warnings.
“It's not an exact science, and there's certainly an element of people that will ignore them, but we really need the public to know that if you receive one of those Wireless Emergency Alerts, it means that there's an immediate risk to you and your family, and you need to take action and follow our instructions,” Turner said.
The Texas floods have also sparked conversation about National Weather Service cuts and FEMA cuts.
Connecticut is suing the federal government over cuts to the NWS.
“We know that they've been impacted by some of the staff reductions, but we've been told that there's not going to be any impact to forecasting here in Connecticut,” Turner said. “So that was great to hear.”
“But the big thing is, when we talk about these alerts, they actually have the authority to send those alerts without going through us. So if a weather alert reaches a certain emergency or life safety condition, such as a flash flood emergency or tornado warning, there's a small subset of scenarios that the National Weather Service can just send those to our residents or any state residents. And that's what happened in Texas — that wasn't initiated by the state or the county. Those alerts regarding the weather came directly from the weather service.”
The White House has pushed back on claims that cuts to the NWS impacted the response in Texas. Without mentioning Texas, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said federal cuts had hurt meteorologists and weather forecasting ability.
“That was an act of God,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing on Monday. “It’s not the administration’s fault that the flood hit when it did. But there were early and consistent warnings, and again, the National Weather Service did its job.”
