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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
American Samoa Cable
operator welcomes a waiverAMERICAN Samoa Cable has obtained a temporary waiver of federal requirements that it install Emergency Alert System equipment.
The EAS, used by broadcast and cable companies to notify the public in the event of emergencies, replaced the Emergency Broadcast System several years ago.
The Federal Communications Commission granted the waiver Feb. 9, some two years after the cable company's initial request.
The cable company noted that in American Samoa there are no sources transmitting EAS signals, (as Civil Defense does in Hawaii), and that the only real-time video source available to the company is not local in origin, it is beamed in via satellite. Besides, the beamed streams are of taped, not live programming.
On its face the waiver seems to be a worry, with Hurricane Heta's hellish wrath still fresh in many islanders' minds.
However, Hawaii resident Gus Hannemann, liaison for the senate of American Samoa for state, federal and territorial affairs, was relieved to hear about the waiver.
He was a leader in relief efforts following the January hurricane and said the mandated EAS is unnecessary. Also its cost, if passed along, would be burdensome to the cable company's 3,000 subscribers, he said. The cable company was required to submit financial statements to the FCC to prove that mandated installation would be a hardship.
It's not as if American Samoa is without emergency notification systems, said Hannemann.
There is a territorial emergency management office "and not only that, but we also have a very good weather bureau," he said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides information used by local broadcasters including the government-run KZVK-TV, "and then factor in the coconut wireless," Hannemann said.
"You cannot have something happen in any village in Samoa where word doesn't get around."
There is no perceived lack of communication, Hannemann said. "The cable channels now existent work with the government. It's already a good set-up," said Hannemann. The waiver does not specify an expiration date, as the commission noted that its EAS staff is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish an EAS program in the territory.
In Hawaii, Oceanic Time Warner Cable's participation in emergency notification of the public dates back to the 1970s, according to Mike Goodish, vice president of networking and technical quality.
As the state's only cable operator, "we have relationships through our franchise with the state where we tie into the Civil Defense site in Diamond Head and from that point we'll take the alert information," he said. Oceanic's fiber-optic link to the Civil Defense facility would enable the company to transmit, for instance, an emergency message from the governor, statewide.
Oceanic carries the weekly and monthly tests as well as the alert information on all its channels, he said. "We generate a text message that accompanies the audio on all the channels ... and we do that statewide," Goodish said.
Traditional television channels, like the network affiliates and KHET, also carry NOAA system tests and news alerts. And digital cable subscribers are able to monitor NOAA weather radio on channel 880. The broadcast carries alert messages in times of emergencies.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
