Share Your Ideas with Verizon

[#1]

I have a complaint about Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages overriding my normal FIOS TV service when a warning (usually a tornado warning) is not for my county.   The National Weather Service (NWS) provides Universal Geographic Codes (UGC) with their warnings so that it can be routed by EAS to just those counties needing a warning.  I know something about this since I am a retired NWS employee that worked on the UGC project and other EAS issues many years ago.  I live in Montgomery County MD. This evening, the following warning (copied below) interrupted my TV service with the following message that did not include Montgomery County MD.  This is not the first time this has happened.  Please send EAS messages only to your customers in counties that are actually under a warning.  That is what NWS UGC codes are for (which appear on the line below "TORNADO WARNING."

TORNADO WARNING
MDC009-017-033-037-072230-
/O.NEW.KLWX.TO.W.0029.120807T2157Z-120807T2230Z/

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
557 PM EDT TUE AUG 7 2012

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  EASTERN CHARLES COUNTY IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND...
  NORTHERN ST. MARYS COUNTY IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND...
  SOUTHEASTERN PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY IN CENTRAL MARYLAND...
  WESTERN CALVERT COUNTY IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND...

* UNTIL 630 PM EDT

* AT 556 PM EDT...A CONFIRMED TORNADO WAS REPORTED NEAR HALLOWING
  POINT...AND WAS MOVING NORTHWEST AT 5 MPH. THIS TORNADO HAS BEEN
  CONFIRMED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
  HALLOWING POINT...
  GOLDEN BEACH...

[#2]

I live in Anne Arundel County. Didn't get a EAS on my boxes.

[#3]

The fiostv twitter guy claimed (in a tweet to me long ago) that someone not employed by Verizon controls when an EAS is sent out and to where. Whether true or not, this would seem to make sense. In a real emergency, the government (local or state) should be in control of the message sent out and when it is sent out.

My problem is that the EAS messages over fios seem more intrusive than those that I remember being sent out over Comcast. Once I receive a "seek shelter" type of warning, I want to tune the rest of the message out since I've translated that message to "don't go outside for awhile" as I'm already in shelter.

[#4]

EAS Alerts:

I understand the logic for EAS alerts, BUT is Vz doing alerts during the quite period on the East Coast and screwing up prime time TV on the West Coast?  For 2 weeks in a row we have had EAS alert testing at around 10:20 PM on Tuesday.   I have had FIOS for several years and I have never seen so many EAS testing alerts.  Why block out the whole picture, do an overlay for the alert so we can see the picture and stay current in the plot.  If you are doing testing please wait for a quite period for all your subscribers.