Among Friends

[dooBdoo]

            The emergency alert system is continuing diligently to work out the kinks, and it does get better but it's going to take time.   It's highly complex, and will always fall short of what we might want it to be.

           Nevertheless, in my opinion it's worth its weight in gold and I would urge everyone to focus on all the times it has saved lives rather than feel annoyed by the alerts that don't apply to us.   

            It's like those weather spots that break into our favorite tv shows...  we find ourselves frustrated and aggravated but once the information hits close to home and saves or protects someone we know, personally, and love, that might change.   

            I used to fuss about the tv weather cut-ins until a tornado made a direct hit on my home, removed the roof, peeled the bricks off the exterior wall, picked up cars and carried them away (in an area in which everyone always said "no tornadoes will ever come here").  By some inconceivable stroke of luck, I paid attention to this one and took shelter.   

            I was humbled and grateful for surviving the storm, and looking back wish I hadn't been so cynical and critical of the warning systems.   I also have a sister who found herself in exactly what @Mj12 described...  her car caught up in flooding in an area that never flooded before, and she paid no attention to warnings (and to put this in context she's a very bright, level-headed, independent person).    

            Just my opinion, but I'd rather see/hear a hundred alerts that don't directly apply to me and my loved ones than to miss one that could've made the ultimate difference.

[dooBdoo]

          I wanted to add something else...  when I hear emergency vehicle sirens, I always stop and say a prayer for all involved.   The alerts offer a similar opportunity to offer a simple prayer of hope for all those affected by the troubles, dangers, potential perils that generated the warnings.❤️   

[Alison Wonderland]

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@NickNack wrote:

I hope it stops raining where you are soon @Annabellethecat66.  My phone did that several times a few months ago.  It was always an Amber Alert.  I don't want Amber Alerts and figured out how to turn them off.  It had never done it before.  I wonder why they suddenly started sending them.  

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To save lives. They've been pushed to smartphones phones since 2013. They issue Ambers Alerts to make people aware of a critical situation because the more eyes you have who might see and report something, the greater the odds you will recover the child alive.

Later they added flash flood alerts, also to save lives, because a flash flood can happen in minutes and wash everyone away at any time of day. Entire homes and the families inside have been washed away in flash floods.

[Alison Wonderland]

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@Annabellethecat66 wrote:

The one that bothers me is when I get a noise on my phone and there's been a child abduction.  Oh!  Really!  Well, that's all it says!  No other information AT ALL.

So what good does it do me?  It's not like I could look for a car (any car) a child (no description) .

Well, you get the idea.  This has happened a few times.  It makes no sense at all.

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The Amber Alerts I get do come with additional information and I know I can search online for more information, as well.

[NickNack]

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@Alison Wonderland wrote:

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@NickNack wrote:

I hope it stops raining where you are soon @Annabellethecat66.  My phone did that several times a few months ago.  It was always an Amber Alert.  I don't want Amber Alerts and figured out how to turn them off.  It had never done it before.  I wonder why they suddenly started sending them.  

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To save lives. They've been pushed to smartphones phones since 2013. They issue Ambers Alerts to make people aware of a critical situation because the more eyes you have who might see and report something, the greater the odds you will recover the child alive.

Later they added flash flood alerts, also to save lives, because a flash flood can happen in minutes and wash everyone away at any time of day. Entire homes and the families inside have been washed away in flash floods.

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I don't remember how many years I've had my iPhone but I've had it a while.  The alerts I started getting about six months ago were the first ones I've ever had.  I know they're to save lives, but I wondered why they just started sending them.

On my phone you have to read the alert while the buzzer is sounding.  I'm always so anxious to turn it off, and then I don't know where the alert is to get it back and read it.  It has always been amber alerts on my phone, so I did turn them off.  I wouldn't mind getting weather alerts.

[Nataliesgramma]

Annoying as they are...and they ARE annoying....makes my dog shake and head for under the bed.......its to protect or advise you of a potential emergency......

Just last month we had a couple of guys ignore a Severe Weather Warning and took off in a boat on the lake.....

They both drowned...

[onlyshopsonline]

Mine has gone off a several times today. I finally disabled it.  We have no plans to go out, and our house sits high. So, I’m not concerned.  But there are areas around us that are flooding.  

[Financialgrl]

Out walking yesterday and got a similar loud shrill sound.  It was an Amber Alert.  Iphone has it so you can go in and turn off those notifications (other phones prob as well). 

I've kept them on bc shortly after moving I was asleep and there was a tornado warning in the middle of the night which you'll definitely know about if it's in the daytime and your TV is on but if it happens in the middle of the night - could save someone who has moved to an internal windowless room of the house.  

[geezerette]

I’m glad I read this thread the other day.  I had never had this happen to me before.  But yesterday, as I was standing in line at the post office, all of a sudden there was a very loud alert-type noise that went on and on.  Everyone’s phone in the building was going off at once with the same alert!  We all turned our phones off and laughed about it.  It was an Amber Alert, which I also later turned off my phone.

But had I not read about this here previously, it would have scared the heck out of me!🤗  

[FuzzyFace]

A., what are you doing, sitting there fiddling with your computer when you have just received a warning about dangerous weather?

Sometimes I think you have no sense at all.