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Local media not warning the people!

Z

Zenith Transoceanic

It seems to me that with 4 of the 6 nuclear reactors melting down in Japan;
with at least one having had 20 years worth (!) of spent fuel rods in it,
radiation from Japan WILL be making its way to the skies of Pennsylvania
come Thursday, Friday, or so, as best I can determine.

People here should be told, and advised what they need to do about
Cesium 30, and other radiation that's coming our way, but I have not seen
this threat being addressed by local media people.
Either they don't know, or don't believe that this is a problem.

I would hope that they wake up to their responsibility to the listening (and watching) public.
 
Zenith:

You say the media is not warning the people of the risks of airborne radioactive particles from Japan. You further say that this material will be arriving Thursday or Friday. You cite no sources.

There are no meteorologists or nuclear experts that I can find who backs your claims. It is logical to assume the radioactive solids will dissipate over the ocean long before the reach NEPA,

IT HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED BECAUSE IT ISN'T TRUE.

Rich Mates
 
Since the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security ten years ago, the government has made it clear that it is the responsibility of DHS, not local radio, to decide when the public should be notified about a potential emergency.

By the way, the Japanese government doesn't expect radiation to even affect Tokyo, much less Wilkes Barre.
 
RIM said:
Zenith:

You say the media is not warning the people of the risks of airborne radioactive particles from Japan. You further say that this material will be arriving Thursday or Friday. You cite no sources.

There are no meteorologists or nuclear experts that I can find who backs your claims. It is logical to assume the radioactive solids will dissipate over the ocean long before the reach NEPA,

IT HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED BECAUSE IT ISN'T TRUE.

Rich Mates
Click to expand...


You are correct, as it turns out.
According to Yoichi Shimatsu ("World Renowned Expert On Japan's Nuclear Crisis"), what is saving us at the
moment is the cold weather.
Had the weather been warmer, the heat would have taken particles higher into the atmosphere, and, from there, into possibly the jet stream..

I was basing my estimate on typical average speed of wind currents across the Pacific and the US.
 
TheBigA said:
Since the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security ten years ago, the government has made it clear that it is the responsibility of DHS, not local radio, to decide when the public should be notified about a potential emergency.

By the way, the Japanese government doesn't expect radiation to even affect Tokyo, much less Wilkes Barre.
Click to expand...

Tokyo has not been affected as much as it might have been because the wind generally blows east from
the plants, over the ocean.
That said, there was a wind shift that, last I heard, had Tokyo in a panic, so it is being affected.

I wouldn't trust homeland security as far as I can spit, much less expect them
to be truthful in the event of a nuclear meltdown.
They are an excuse for a police state. End of story.

(my opinion.)

What would do my heart good would be to see local weather people addressing
the concerns of the people regarding the potential for a problem,
rather than chirping away about how great it is that spring is on it's way,
while acting as if nothing at all of consequence had occurred in Japan.
 
Please share with us your credentials that entitle you to spread messages that can plain scare the pants off of people.
 
I'm God.

Tell me, when have I done that?

Which is better?
That the people "have their pants scared off them" but have a chance to act,
or
that the people are kept in the dark, "fat dumb and happy", and subsequently, take no action to protect themselves, and suffer for it?

If you work in the media, and your choice is the latter, you shouldn't be in the business as far as I am concerned.
 
Zenith Transoceanic said:
I wouldn't trust homeland security as far as I can spit, much less expect them
to be truthful in the event of a nuclear meltdown.
Click to expand...

That's OK. You don't have to trust them. But broadcasters have to follow the law.
 
Have they decreed that only they can speak to issues of public safety?
Has freedom of speech been usurped by them?
(I wouldn't doubt that they feel that it should be.)

I have already expressed what I would like to see and hear from the local weather people.
I'd like to hear Rusty Fender or Joe Snedeker, or Tom Clark etc. say SOMETHING anything
acknowledging that we are part of the planet, and as such, might be affected by the
Japanese nuclear explosion.

It is a question that would naturally be on peoples' minds, but the silence is deafening, and telling.
 
Zenith Transoceanic said:
Have they decreed that only they can speak to issues of public safety?
Has freedom of speech been usurped by them?
Click to expand...

You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater. You can't cry wolf. And warning the public without having the facts is irresponsible. Getting the facts from designated emergency officials is standard operating procedure, and the law. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech.
 
TheBigA said:
You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater. You can't cry wolf. And warning the public without having the facts is irresponsible. Getting the facts from designated emergency officials is standard operating procedure, and the law. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't yell "fire" in a crowded theater. Crying wolf is not wise.
Warning the public without having the facts is irresponsible.
Getting the facts from designated emergency officials is standard operating procedure.

"And the law" ? That may or may not be true, I would think, depending on the circumstances.

"It has nothing to do with freedom of speech" - but apparently it does.

Because you seem to be suggesting that if a building is on fire, "the law" forbids the mentioning of it unless the fire chief himself has said it is so.
That may be a good "cya" habit, but no law stating that only the fire chief can speak the truth of the matter would be constitutionally sound,
though there may be such laws on the books.

I doubt that there is any law that forbids a Noreen Clark from saying something along the lines of,
"We here in Pennsylvania probably don't need to be concerned about the radiation from the plants in Japan because the cold weather is keeping the particles from entering the jet stream".

Yet not a word has been spoken, that I am aware of, and that troubles me.
We're 5 days into it, and not a word has been spoken from those whom we would expect to hear from, and what's worse is that - had it been warmer - my initial post most likely would have been accurate, and the people would find out too late that they'd been exposed.

In my opinion, that is just not acceptable. The bottom line is we've "lucked out" for now,
but we may not be so lucky in the future, and broadcasters need to be willing to
take on the responsibility of keeping the public informed, rather than waiting for FEMA,
Department of Homeland Security or anyone else to do it.
 
Zenith Transoceanic said:
That may be a good "cya" habit, but no law stating that only the fire chief can speak the truth of the matter would be constitutionally sound,
though there may be such laws on the books.

I
Click to expand...

Let me explain the facts of life to you. We live in a world where McDonalds gets sued because some dope spils hot coffee on his pants. Now every cup of coffee must warn you that it contains a hot beverage. You call that "cya." I call it the facts of life. So some radio guy flips on his mic and tells his audience that the nuclear disaster in Japan will mean people in Scranton are going to get cancer. So people hop in their cars to evacuate. Someone crashes and grandma gets killed. Then someone in authority says the radio station made up the cancer scare. Guess who gets sued and could even lose their license?

Look, believe what you want to believe. But when you run a radio station that is licensed by the government, you better do what they say. You can practice your personal freedom and democracy on your dime. But the radio station doesn't belong to the guy who works there. That's just a fact of life.
 
All good points, but if something were to happen, what station in that area would be ready to broadcast the information? Who still has a WORKING fall out shelter studio? It'd be nice to see all those TFT 911 and Sage EAS boxes get a REAL workout!
 
Zenith Transoceanic said:
fyi to everyone:
World map showing Japanese radiation releases
Click to expand...

So who is ZAMG?
What is their credibility?
The map seems to show a "plume?" going out 300, maybe 400 miles?
Where on that map does it document that it eventually end up over Pennsylvania?
Will it get that far?
will it end up over Mexico if it gets that far?

We don't know what it is we don't know!

Watcha' think... Should we be advising the people of Brazil to crawl in a hole?
 
Info:

Founded in 1851, ZAMG, the state meteorological and geophysical services in Austria.

Interesting...This possibility has been discussed on CNN.

I recently had the use of a Narda RF radiation meter. The radio antennas I researched were all well within safe limits (including the one 80 ft. up with 51000 watts). I wish I could say better for my microwave oven at home (a one year old top of the line LG) which was at 150% of acceptable general population limits! The Amana RadarRange (I have one of these out in the shed) is known to produce significant amounts of RF radiation. Many of the TV sets and computer monitors in my home produced measurable amounts of RF radiation....but well within safe limits. Of course solar radiation is a great radiation producer that is proven to be harmful. Radiation exists everywhere...the question is the amount and accumulation of this radiation. Because of distance I personally doubt that a harmful amount of radiation could reach us. Any amount we would get would be much less than our daily dose of radiation we receive from our computers, TV's, and the sun (you likely received more of a dose of radiation reading this post than you would receive from this disaster).
 
if we ever have a real emergency situation in our state, county or town... as far as communication ...we are in deep trouble. our radio stations are not qualified with staff or equipment to handle any real problem. they cant even give us true river readings during a flood warning. forget tv.. you have one guy drawing stick figures on his weather map, and the other local tv station up on the roof giving temps from high school locations. you cant believe any of our goverment officials, because if they do know anything, they wont tell you, or they will lie. good luck...
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Should we be advising the people of Brazil to crawl in a hole?
Click to expand...

Generally the prevailing winds from Japan tend to travel in a horizontal pattern (overall).
The "hills of North Georgia" (your location) would not likely even be affected by what's happening in Japan.
The jet stream introduces some oscilation in the wind direction, but by and large the movement is horizontal.
 
cowboy72 said:
if we ever have a real emergency situation in our state, county or town... as far as communication ...we are in deep trouble. our radio stations are not qualified with staff or equipment to handle any real problem. they cant even give us true river readings during a flood warning. forget tv.. you have one guy drawing stick figures on his weather map, and the other local tv station up on the roof giving temps from high school locations. you cant believe any of our goverment officials, because if they do know anything, they wont tell you, or they will lie. good luck...
Click to expand...

true. You made me laugh. :D
 
Zenith Transoceanic said:
Generally the prevailing winds from Japan tend to travel in a horizontal pattern (overall).
The "hills of North Georgia" (your location) would not likely even be affected by what's happening in Japan.
The jet stream introduces some oscilation in the wind direction, but by and large the movement is horizontal.
Click to expand...

Here is a projcted flow of the radiation from the New York Times (Hit the play button.)

That is IF it catches the jet stream, as I understand it. And the amounts would presumably be relatively small by the time they reached the US. In fact they would be negligable.
 
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