The terror of the Emergency Broadcast System (and other warnings)

[23skidoo]

I need to give this a bit of a preamble. I was born in 1969 so I spent my childhood and early teens in the Cold War. And like many of my age and earlier, it was always in the back of our minds that we could one day look up and see the missiles in the skies.

A chief element of this "conditioning of terror" was the Emergency Broadcast System. An updating of an earlier system called Conelred, it was a system that was designed to warn people about emergencies like natural disasters, storms, etc. But we all knew its primary purpose was to warn of nuclear attack. Although I lived in Canada, from about 1978 onwards we had cable TV feeds from American broadcasters, and thus were indoctrinated into the wonderful world of the Emergency Broadcast System.

Every few days, American TV stations would run tests of the system. Like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntxxxj69UxA

Usually these aired in the afternoon, but I remember being woken up by one late at night and nearly s*itting myself. I only ever experienced one genuine activation, and that occurred when the 911 system went down. Needless to say it was anticlimactic. But even as recently as 5 years ago I still found myself with a momentary flutter of freak when an alert system test came on.

(The wording of these tests varied. Usually they used generic terms like "in case of an emergency" but I remember one North Dakota broadcaster added "including a nuclear attack" to its test script.)

Here's an infamous incident from 1971 when the EBS was activated in one city by accident when the wrong code number was sent out and a radio station had to follow the procedure. This is fascinating stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikL2T743w6c

A similar thing happened on Chicago TV a few years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F5a2qd0J3s

After the Cold War, the use of the EBS as a televised air raid siren (for many years, the Canadian version of EBS - which was intended solely as an attack warning - did feature a recording of an air raid siren, too) fell into disuse and it evolved into a more general warning system that in some areas even broadcasts Amber (child abduction) alerts. A second alert tone, even more creepy than the buzz tone, has been added in some areas (this following clip is a mockup but is included so you can hear the sound, which is genuine):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C0SebTLkj8

But I might have encountered an even creepier new innovation. In Alberta a new digital emergency alert system is being introduced, and earlier this evening it was activated to warn people north of Calgary that a tornado was approaching (interestingly this was only 5 minutes after William and Kate arrived here). While TV broadcasters actually heard the emergency warning sound in the link above, some Internet users would have encountered the recording seen at the top of this news page (press play to hear it):

http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/07/07/destructive-tornado-strikes-near-sundre

My god, could they have chosen a more freaky computer voice to make the announcement? What's wrong with good old Victoria from Microsoft Word? At least the old-style EBS/EAS alerts usually had a live voice come on. Yeesh!

So fess up - anyone over the age of 35 here who still gets freaked out when an Amber alert comes on because they remain hardwired to expect the EAS/EBS tones/buzz to signify Armageddon? Or, at least, Very Bad Stuff Going Down?

Alex

 

[Amaris]

I'm only 31, but when I hear the EBS/EAS activation, I stop what I'm doing to see what's going on, all the while more than a dozen scenarios running through my head.

 

[BillJ]

The only thing the Emergency Broadcast System does anymore is aggravate me. I tune into a channel to watch the progressing storm and they cut in with a plain black screen with white text telling me one is coming. So I lose my ability to track the storm and tell when the danger is present and when it is past.

It's an antiquated system whose time is past.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

They test the sirens here once a week, and it always gives me the creeps.

I remember air raid drills in elementary school -- lying on the floor, face down, hands clasped over the back of the neck. Like that was somehow going to protect us in a nuclear attack! Even when I was that young, it made no sense to me.

 

[captcalhoun]

we don't have any of that in Britain.

 

[SG-17]

They test the EBS here once a week, but only at 3 am. Being an insomniac, that annoys me.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I thought that the Emergency Broadcast System test that was on tv was a test of the stations ability to broadcast. I had no idea it had anything to do with real cold war style emergencies.

This is probably a good thing considering my mother lived in terror of the Russians dropping atom bombs on us, a fear which she managed to pass on to her children quite effectively.

 

[Shikarnov]

Aside from tests, the only times I the EBS is during tornado warnings in the midwest. And I only ever hear air raid sirens under actual conditions - never as a test.

For what it's worth, when I lived in Russia, I never saw anything like an EBS test on their televisions, although local programming was once preempted to announce a missing child.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Since I was born in 1946, I lived with the entire cold war as the background music to daily life. I remember "640, 1240, CONELRAD" as the tagline for the system as it existed in the AM radio days. 640 and 1240 were special frequencies devoted only to the warning system. As FM took the lead over AM and TV came into prominence, the broader Emergency Alert system replaced CONELRAD. I can't remember EVER feeling fear and trepidation from the practice alerts. The only time I had genuine fear was during the Cuban missle crisis in 1962. I knew the scope of Soviet missle technology and also knew that Fort Knox was only 25 miles from our home in Louisville and my ass was grass if a nuclear war kicked off. JFK stood his ground and Kruschev blinked. That was a good day.

 

[Mr Awe]

I was born the same years at the OP and, no, never had a freaky EBS situation. They were mostly an annoyance that interupted my shows! That's my association with them.

Mr Awe

 

[ancientone51]

Being only three years younger than Mutai Sho-Rin I can attest to it as part of my youth as well. Never got spooked by it, actually felt a bit of comfort in the St. Louis knowing tornadoes were near or not.

That said, one city here in Texas is thinking of taking down their sirens. We now have phone bank automated warnings. I've gotten i or 2 of those. But what about visitors who are not on our phone loop? At least they would hear the sirens.

Mutai Kennedy was supposed to pass under an overpass near my home in St. Louis on his way to some event or other but canceled due to the "flu" that turned out to be the Cuban Missile Crisis.

 

[J.T.B.]

I was born in '69 and used to think about the Bomb like everybody else, but never really had a problem with the EBS tests except the sound was annoying. It was great when we got a remote with a mute button. I can still remember the announcement verbatim:

"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area, in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other authorities, have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and official information. This is only a test."​

All the "Fallout Shelter" signs around never really bothered me either, it was just part of the background. But there was an elementary school in my area that had a big air-raid siren on a pole, and that used to give me the creeps a little. "When that thing goes off, that's the end!"

--Justin

 

[ITL]

Our Emergency Broadcast System is a bit different:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga_rCnueID8[/yt]

Remain indoors.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Since I was born in 1946,

I love you.


Born in 56. I remember how in elementary school we either had to line up along the hallway walls if that's where we were when the alarm went off (line up, crouch down, cover your head), or if we were in the classroom hide under the desk covering your head.

Yeah, a nuclear bomb goes off and you cover your head. That'll work.

I don't ever remember being afraid though. I don't really think i comprehended what it all meant. Other than it sucked if you were wearing a dress that day.

 

[Lindley]

Yeah, a nuclear bomb goes off and you cover your head. That'll work.

There is some rationale to it. Assuming you aren't in the insta-crispy zone and you don't take a gamma rays shower, duck-and-cover might well protect you from things like windows shattering due to overpressure.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Thanks for that info. I feel better about everyone seeing my ass now.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I too can recite the "If this had been an actual emergency..." routine verbatim. I feel much older now.

 

[RandyS]

Yeah, a nuclear bomb goes off and you cover your head. That'll work.

There is some rationale to it. Assuming you aren't in the insta-crispy zone and you don't take a gamma rays shower, duck-and-cover might well protect you from things like windows shattering due to overpressure.

A short term solution at best. Fallout will get you eventually.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I'm just so glad i really didn't "get" what all those drills were about. I can't even imagine how paranoid i would have become if i did.

 

[Lindley]

A short term solution at best. Fallout will get you eventually.

That depends to some extent on the weather. Wind direction and speed has a major effect on fallout dispersion.