[sbe-eas] National FIPS Code

[Adrienne Abbott]

Polygons work well because they aren't limited to straight lines or state
borders, straight or crooked. Polygons can be drawn across state lines just
like fires and floods and other disasters, whatever is needed to identify
the area of the disaster. 

As I understand it from all the demonstrations presented to our state
officials, CAP can work with GIS programs and other programs used by
emergency managers like Web EOC and CAMEO. The thing that is going to
"freeze" CAP is not FIPS codes, national or otherwise, but the FCC's
apparent willingness to stick with SAME for an unspecified period of time
because, they say, so many stations and cable operators have invested in
basic CAP converters (not the TFT product) that take the date-rich CAP
message and dumb it down to SAME. All the complaints we've had about SAME
and the lack of a complete text message that matches the audio message will
be with us as long as the FCC ties EAS to SAME. Broadcasters need to stand
up and demand CAP or take a back seat to cell phones, Twitter, Facebook and
other Internet technologies when it comes to Public Warning.
Adrienne 

"Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN