New Mexico Fires: Is Radio Providing Critical Information?

[davideduardo]

A good example of

The Internet is not indestructible.

A good example is the fairly recent major hurricane in Puerto Rico where over 90% of cellular phone sites were down (and some for several months), all power was out, all TV was off the air and only one radio station, an AM, was broadcasting.

The most fragile system is the Internet and the cellular phone system. Landline phone systems are becoming decrepit, and many are actually using the provider's Internet system to connect. TV stations on tall towers are vulnerable, as are similarly installed FMs. An AM can be put back on the air with a wire between two trees in a few hours!

But the average citizen under age 50 or so would not even think to check AM in an emergency even if they had a radio with the AM band on it!

 

[Mark Roberts]

If the cellular network and local infrastructure have been impacted, then these critical updates on social media will not be accessible to those who need it. Maybe Starlink is the only connection available to the public internet from within the area.

The entire village was evacuated, with most going to Roswell, which was the only route open. When NM 48 was still open, some people evacuated to Capitan.

KOB-TV has a concise summary of conditions. South Fork Fire and Salt Fire: 2 dead, around 24,000 total acres burned - also the state: Wildfire Updates - Welcome to NewMexico.gov

Since these stations are over 100 miles away, I doubt these AM signals would be very audible in the area unless residents own radios with sensitive tuners designed for DX-ing. The signals may be more reliable at night.

What is it with this constant need to speculate? The only people left in Ruidoso and the Downs are emergency personnel who have their own means of communications. Any communications directed to evacuees would have to be able to reach them where they are now.

 

[davideduardo]

If all of the local transmitters are off the air, then it looks like the only signals available would be KKOB-AM and KNML-AM from Albuquerque and XEROK-AM out of Juarez. Out of all these options, I assume that KKOB-AM would be the best source for critical information as a news/talk station since they have local hosts in the studio for most of the day.

Just out of curiosity, why would your consider XEROK as a possible source of information? First, they have been running low power for many many years, and even lower of recent. Second, they would not be connected to U.S. news sources, services or networks nor have an English-proficient staff.

 

[OriginalSample]

A good example of

A good example is the fairly recent major hurricane in Puerto Rico where over 90% of cellular phone sites were down (and some for several months), all power was out, all TV was off the air and only one radio station, an AM, was broadcasting.

Puerto Rico had major hurricanes in the 1960s - 2010s and managed to recover quickly.The archipelago’s public utilities in 2019 fell into the hands of privatization sold out by corrupt governors ( who were both ousted by every day Puerto Ricans of all political stripes).

 

[louis_p]

Just out of curiosity, why would your consider XEROK as a possible source of information? First, they have been running low power for many many years, and even lower of recent. Second, they would not be connected to U.S. news sources, services or networks nor have an English-proficient staff.

I wasn’t suggesting that XEROK would be a source of local information. I was responding to another comment that the local transmitters were off the air and this signal would be available. I understand that this station has no interest in serving a remote community across the border where many residents don’t speak Spanish as a first language.

 

[kwthom]

<...>
this station has no interest in serving a remote community across the border where many residents don’t speak Spanish as a first language.

This is a comment from someone that's never been in central New Mexico.

Spanish has been spoken in that region for...400 years. Give or take a decade.

 

[Kelly A]

Even local stations can't do any good in natural or man made disasters if the local emergency services aren't able or willing to active EAS with current information. Especially in smaller towns or communities, they've got higher priorities than activating EAS.

 

[davideduardo]

Puerto Rico had major hurricanes in the 1960s - 2010s

I was there for most of that period and there was never any sort of storm like María.

and managed to recover quickly.The archipelago’s public utilities in 2019 fell into the hands of privatization sold out by corrupt governors ( who were both ousted by every day Puerto Ricans of all political stripes).

The utilities were sold due to extreme corruption and lack of modernization by the government entities, ranging from the old "Fuentes Fluviales" to Puerto Rico Telephone ("Operadora Pérez, ¿para qué pueblo?) and the Autoridad de Energia Electrica.

Those of us who had to wait months to get a phone line installed or went without power for days before getting a home connection fixed know what it was like to deal with the government administration of phones, power and water.

 

[davideduardo]

This is a comment from someone that's never been in central New Mexico.

Spanish has been spoken in that region for...400 years. Give or take a decade.

But few speak it now. Albuquerque is an example where the Nielsen data shows that less than 20% of local Hispanics are Spanish dominant or bilingual.

I had a friend who I met in Ecuador when she was in the Peace Corp. Her last name was "Olguín" which is the early way of spelling "Holguín" and she came from a rural area just west of Albuquerque. She spoke no Spanish. I asked her about the use of Spanish in her family, and she said that they had stopped speaking the language "about 100 years ago".

 

[kwthom]

...and Ruidoso isn't the big city of Albuquerque, either.

Anyway...now, as the monsoon moisture begins to infiltrate the region, the fear turns from fire (still burning...) to flooding.

"Wednesday afternoon, Ruidoso Village leaders warned anyone who hasn’t evacuated to leave and seek higher ground due to flash flooding concerns. "

https://www.krqe.com/news/wildfires/national-weather-service-has-concerns-over-potential-burn-scar-flooding-in-ruidoso/

 

[OriginalSample]

I was there for most of that period and there was never any sort of storm like María.

Yes, climate change is real. At least we can agree to that. Even so, there’s no excuse to have towns without power for as long as some experienced. There were contracts given to a company from Montana that was straight up theft and awarded by the cronies of Roselló’s administration. All the while laid off public utilities workers had no access to do a job they have always done.

Puerto Rico's deal with Whitefish was shady as hell, new records show

Those of us who had to wait months to get a phone line installed or went without power for days before getting a home connection fixed know what it was like to deal with the government administration of phones, power and water.

Your source(s)? I never heard this from anyone. Not family or friends.

The public utilities was 9 million in debt when it was sold off to LUMA in 2019. How much since the privatization are they in debt now? LUMA and Roselló’s administration awarded a 300 million contract to the energy company from Montana. 300 million!

 

[Mark Roberts]

This is a comment from someone that's never been in central New Mexico.

Spanish has been spoken in that region for...400 years. Give or take a decade.

Santa Fe was founded in 1610, so you're pretty close to the mark.

I think it's time to introduce some folks to the Val de la O Show.

 

[davideduardo]

Yes, climate change is real. At least we can agree to that.

That was not the worst hurricane ever in Puerto Rico. It was the worst since people started building homes in flood plains on the coast and along river valleys "en la isla". San Felipe Segundo in 1928 was just as bad a Categoy 5 but the Island had far less people and a less delicate infrastructure.

Even so, there’s no excuse to have towns without power for as long as some experienced. There were contracts given to a company from Montana that was straight up theft and awarded by the cronies of Roselló’s administration. All the while laid off public utilities workers had no access to do a job they have always done.

Puerto Rico's deal with Whitefish was shady as hell, new records show

Yet the MT company was skilled in doing calamity repairs elsewhere. They ran into the unions of the power company and that was just the start.

Your source(s)? I never heard this from anyone. Not family or friends.

My source? Me! Going back to 1970 I was GM of Radio Uno, then GM of Sonorama and 11-Q and then GM of Z-93, consultant who created NotiUno and then VP of Arso/UnoRadio (Salsoul and the rest). Oh, and then WKAQ and KQ-105.And my staff members, and stations. And my family.

The public utilities was 9 million in debt when it was sold off to LUMA in 2019. How much since the privatization are they in debt now? LUMA and Roselló’s administration awarded a 300 million contract to the energy company from Montana. 300 million!

For the amount of damage, that did not even buy a bandage. We are talking about infrastructure that had not been updated since the era of Muñóz Marín that, being on an island, had no interconnect backup as almost all do in the continental U.S.

Again, what we are talking about is the ability of the Internet, cell phones, landlines and radio / TV to cover natural disasters.

 

[OriginalSample]

That was not the worst hurricane ever in Puerto Rico. It was the worst since people started building homes in flood plains on the coast and along river valleys "en la isla".

Hurricanes that severe used to be once every 20 - 25 years. Now, they’re hitting the archipelago every 4-5 years. Not to mention the torrential downpours that are occurring more frequently every rain season. It’s not just Puerto Rico. Miami just dealt with it last week. No se puede tapar el sol con un dedo. Los diluvios son mas frecuentes y los daños mas evidente con los cambios del clima.

And I’ll remind you my family goes back to the 1800’s. That’s not neither here or there when asking about citing your claim that it was normal to wait two weeks for a phone line to be put in.

 

[OriginalSample]

For the amount of damage, that did not even buy a bandage. We are talking about infrastructure that had not been updated since the era of Muñóz Marín that, being on an island, had no interconnect backup as almost all do in the continental U.S.

Whitefish Energy was a corrupt company that was in the pockets of the ousted governor. Did you read the article?

 

[davideduardo]

And I’ll remind you my family goes back to the 1800’s. That’s not neither here or there when asking about citing your claim that it was normal to wait two weeks for a phone line to be put in.

Actually, I was minimizing the time it took. When I first joined Radio Uno, coming from Ecuador, I applied for a phone for my Hato Rey apartment. It took various months, and then only when Alfred D. Herger and Luis Cosme talked about it on the morning show on Radio Uno.

When I moved the former Radio Hit AM & FM to Guaynabo from El Monte Mall, we went three months during the construction phase with no phone, thanks to the Autoridad de Comunicacions... a localized government phone operation that was even worse than PR Telephone. It took great pressure from the Legal Department head at Pueblo International to get that done.

And I have dozens of stories about Fuentes Fluviales (the old name for the Electric Energy Authority) doing absurd things to our power lines in rural Guaynambo and in Los Filtros.

My service in the 60's at my stations in Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Ambato, Ibarra and others was vastly better. Only in Lago Agrio did I have problems... but we had problems with great big boas trying to seek shelter in our transmitter, too.

 

[davideduardo]

Whitefish Energy was a corrupt company that was in the pockets of the ousted governor. Did you read the article?

It's highly opinionated from the opposition perspective. It's all PNP vs PPD. Una sola cruz bajo la palma and all that stuff.

 

[installLSC]

The big question, if you believe radio's role in natural disasters should be upgraded, is how would you get stations to provide better emergency planning then they do now. Broadcasters will fight tooth and nail any requirement to up their emergency preparedness unless they're getting paid for it. Does anyone think the government would pay broadcasters or form a special radio service just for emergencies?

 

[crainbebo]

One thing I noticed is how TERRIBLE the Yakima County EAS 'robot voice' is. It goes way too fast, can't pronounce names worth a darn (Wapato sounds like "Wah-pahta"), and stops on random words in the middle of sentences.
Elderly people, and those hard-of-hearing wouldn't be able to understand the evacuation warnings if God forbid we had a terrible wildfire in one of these towns.
How about actually having a human being announce the level 3 'go now' notice? I'm thinking about writing an email to them...it can't be that hard to come up with the budget to replace that awful EAS robotic racket with a high-quality radio microphone and a live person. That, and announce WHERE the Red Cross shelter is...the roads that can lead out of danger, etc. Because our local television station is a locked and empty building from after the 6PM news on Friday until the mid-morning hours on Monday.

 

[davideduardo]

The big question, if you believe radio's role in natural disasters should be upgraded, is how would you get stations to provide better emergency planning then they do now. Broadcasters will fight tooth and nail any requirement to up their emergency preparedness unless they're getting paid for it. Does anyone think the government would pay broadcasters or form a special radio service just for emergencies?

Why? The government already has a system where local, state and national government agencies can activate emergency broadcasts on every radio and TV service in their respective areas.

Government law enforcement, weather and climate information, and other entities can all create a need for an EAS activation. Why should radio stations... half of which are not profitable... have to maintain a 24/7 live staff when your government already has an all-encompassing service and system already ready... as it has been for over 60 years.