Warning Horns, Bells and Whistles

I read a newspaper article this morning comparing the Oroville Dam spillway situation and the Coyote Creek flood in San Jose.
     Oroville, was evacuated, it appeared to be organized enough to get people to a safe spot, then they returned home. Oroville had no 911 reverse alert calls, no evacuation horns instead people were notified door to door. It was a planned response, it seems and sounds a little primative but in times of emergency people step up to the plate. Neighbors called neighbors, they walked next door to help others, they did what needed to be done. Oroville has one hour if the dam fails until the water level in town reaches 100 feet deep, they had to leave. In my opinion whoever made the decision to evacuate the town, (I'm sure it was more than one person) used common sense and a rock solid decision.

What! What do you mean we have to leave!

      Coyote Creek, the people in the flood area got no advance notification. The system has been in place for years, but no one was trained to use it, so no one was notified. The first residents heard to evacuate was when the water was rising in front of their homes. The system installed is a reverse 911 system, a common system, it just wasn't in operation. I give the Mayor an atta boy for coming out afterward accepting all responsibility stating the "buck stops here."

Man, that was loud!

      On the small island my wife and I live on has an alarm system, right out of the 1960's, it's an air raid siren, we have I think 4. It's tested on the first Wednesday of each month at 11:00 am. Sometimes I still raise my head and have to think if it's "real" or a "test". Hmm let's see, what day is this, who says I don't need a cell phone. We live and breathe levees, water, wind and our time rises and falls with the tide, it's a lifestyle. If we have a levee breach people on the island have designated evacuation areas. Most are at a nearby marina, from there we walk out, 2 miles for us.
      The urgency in setting up a working system depends I believe on how immenent the threat is. In Oroville, the tallest dam in the US, the threat is ominous. For Oroville residents it is part of their life. To us on the island the threat is always here, high water, tide or not, we live it every day, our levees are looked at every day during the Fall, Winter and Spring. In the Coyote Creek flood the dam is there, the water is there and the creek flows through that section of town. However there was no percieved threat even though the place flooded approximatly 20 years ago, most people forgot. I believe urgency is the deciding difference, and both Oroville and Bethel Island are in comparison small, Bethel Island very small. There are a lot of different facets to notifying people I'm sure, however I think a feeling of urgency to set up a system could be the deciding factor of it's success or failure. I'm sure San Jose will fix the system they have and most likely end up with a state of the art design, due to because that's what they do.
       Well what do you think? Am I way off base, kinda correct or something else? Let us know I'd like to hear your comments.
Thanks jimandkate
emergencykitsplus.com