Emergency Notifications and Disasters

General
1

It seems like the real problem here was:

  • Isolated rural people without phone or Internet access
  • People who got warnings but didn’t evacuate
  • People who have Internet/phone access and were aware of the fires, but didn’t have the capacity to figure out if they were in danger.

It’s terrifying and sad how difficult it is to tell people to evacuate and also to get them to take the warning seriously.

One false alarm or one near miss and you have thousands of people who think they can weather the next hurricane at home just fine.

2

I ignore the fire alarm when I’m in a hotel or office building. If someone tells me to evacuate because of an actual disaster, I go right away.

3

Oof, another factor from the article: old people.

Old people in rural areas can’t easily leave their homes if they have mobility issues. They’re also too isolated to be reached by people who could assist them in time.

4

I follow all fire/emergency alarms except fire alarms in hotels and convention centers.

Hotel fire alarm is a risk I’ll definitely take.

5

The fire alarm at every office building I have ever worked in has had numerous false alarms. After too many instances of standing out in the cold, I just ignore it now. If I smell smoke, I’ll go. I’ll take my chances with carbon monoxide. Just yesterday it went off at work, and everyone started getting up and heading out the door. The alarm was off before they even got to the stairs.

6

Ironic as I literally just came back inside from the fire department ordering an evacuation of the building.

To be fair, there is a smell of burnt plastic, so there may have been a legit issue.

7

I have bad habit of ignoring the fire alarm in my apartment building. I really don’t care to go stand outside for 20 minutes because someone burned up their dinner.

8

RIT they’d force us out into the cold and sweep to ensure we didn’t hide in our rooms every single time someone was terrible at cooking…

1 Like
9

Or every fucking morning that the course portal was opening. Too many times I was standing in the snow while the rest of the campus was nabbing the good classes at the good timeslots.

10

I legit stayed in my room during a fire alarm and got in trouble with the RA to make sure I got into a class.

At least you don’t have to use telnet to register like we did :wink:

11

We didn’t HAVE to use telnet. It was simply the best option available since all the other options were crap.

I wonder if they still have the phone registration system online.

12

That I did not, by my time it was all browser based.

13

Legit we get swept out of the building. First by someone designated as such by our company, and then by building management.

14

My neighbors regularly set off the fire alarm… Curing shit in the oven, blow torching something, making a home kiln in the backyard, setting my compost on fire… I really wish they would shell out some cash to rent a studio…

I usually smell it before the alarm goes off. But I never ignore it. They are whack.

15

California Sunday just did a big backstory article on all of it.