Disaster Warnings ; Response Fatigue

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/resear.../how-disaster-warnings-can-get-your-attention

Above link explains my title. The disaster warnings frequently enough do not work.

Note in article: "unfamiliar terrain that leads to bad decisions. The actual "bad decision" was not learning how to make decisions. There's little skill in accomplishing the routine. Preppers learn how to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty.

Note term "response fatigue" ... wears down people's sense of urgency.

My addendum to above article:

A major difficulty I experience, both personally in my tidal flood plain environment and my overall involvements in large area and regional work, is the lack of access to - information - in our current times.

It has about zero relevance if torrential waters did not close a road - IF - the road is already closed by an acid-head's crashed car on this road.

It's not just weather causing the dangers.

 

An interesting article. I would call it the " Little Boy who Cried Wolf " syndrome. People ignore the warnings because the warnings are very often false alarms. I will speak from personal experience. I have lived in the same area for over 40 years. I couldn't even begin to count how many times tornado warning sirens went off. How many tornados hit after the siren? ZERO. Not a one. The one time a tornado DID hit, there were no sirens. No warning at all. Go figure. I will add that they do a very good job here of notifying people, and keeping them appraised of the changing conditions. They are quite diligent about that. Be it severe weather, flooding, snow, they are on top of everything and broadcasting immediately.

I learned about flash floods, and driving into water covered roads at a very early age. I had a classmate in middle-school whose father drove into a road that runs through an arroyo (TMT will know what I mean). Oddly enough, he was driving a Volkswagon Beatle. No weight in the front end whatsoever. When the front tires hit the water the car was swept away in the current. The mother drowned. The father survived. They had a baby in the car who got caught in the branches of a tree, and survived. Horrible accident that I will never forget. Low lying roads should be marked with warning signs and depth gages so people are warned not to cross when water covers the road, and they can see how deep the water is. This would not be expensive, and it would be a visual warning.

I commend the agencies for trying to make their warning messages more effective. It must be very frustrating warning people, and having your advice ignored. I would question, and not in a bad way, how many lives could have been saved if people had heeded the warnings? How many deaths were preventable? I'm guessing there are fatalities that occurred even though all the warnings were heeded, and proper procedure was followed. Just an accident. God decided it was your time to go.

 

Yep, in those arroyos the rain can be miles away and the next thing you know you are caught in a torrent of fast moving water. I learned that one the hard way. Luckily I made it up the side of a fairly steep incline. My "luck" was due solely to the fact that I had not yet unclipped myself from my climbing rope I had used to descend into the arroyo. God must watch out for drunks and fools. I won't say which I was that day lol