The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a mess. “Unfortunately, I think it will take a major catastrophe where hundreds of thousands of people are killed for people to understand what (we) have been saying,” said Jim Gabbert, who oversees California’s Emergency Alert System.

The FCC plans to rebuild the EAS, sending warnings to computers, PDAs, cell phones, and is considering the idea of automatically turning on TVs and radios in case of emergencies.