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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 15:07:19 :
In Reply to: Don't stress, it's only a test. posted by Prez [216.81.94.72] on Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 14:47:25 :
I love the part about "ensuring ... the U.S. public can receive critical and vital information, should it ever be needed."
I am absolutely certain that in the case of any real problem, the last place I would get get accurate, much less "critical and vital" information is from the US government. It's the nature of all governments, including ours, to do everything they can to control the flow of information. Therefore, any official announcement will be inaccurate, and probably deliberately so.
The planners assume that any meaningful warning of any legitimate threat would result in panic, so all announcements will be some variation of "Don't panic, your government has everything under control, stay where you are, remained tuned to this station for further information and instructions." That's the point where if the Internet's not working and the big rigs have stopped rolling on I-90 or are joined by a lot of vehicles in desert camo with pointy things sticking out of them, I turn off the radio, save the batteries for my flashlights and walkie-talkies, and go door to door and see how my neighbors are doing and start discussing how we might handle this mysterious turn of events.
At this point, I think economic crisis is the most likely possible problem. What if by a "stroke of the pen", all your savings and other financial accounts were rendered worthless? It wasn't that long ago (10 or 20 years?) that Mexico devalued the Peso by 50% overnight and with no warning. Suddenly every Mexican was 50% poorer than they were the day before. Actually, the most likely problem is storms, earthquakes, forest fires, etc, but do we really need the President and the Emergency Broadcast System to tell us how to deal with a blizzard or a forest fire? Of course there all the old traditional disasters like plague and nuclear war...
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