Archive for July, 2012
Jann Scotts Journal: OMG techies text walk talk and crash into everyone
Jul 31st
Jann Scott’s Journal
Distracted walking and texting
I noticed BPD is targeting crosswalks.
Have they, also, thought about enforcing jay walking laws for distracted walkers who text or talk. on moblie devices
CBS this Morning had an excellent piece on it. A few police departments around the USA who use Jay walking to reel in people who text , walk , run into people, get hit by cars, bikes etc.
Deaths by distracted walking are up 4% nationally. ER admittance are up too.
In tech Boulder I see people walking out into traffic all day long.
In one city they painted signs as you step off curb onto crosswalk that say in yellow: “look Up”
where people trip over themselves in crosswalks
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado
OEM Fails to Deliver leaves lives in peril
Jul 11th
There is a problem with Boulder OEM. They won’t send out media releases during an emergency. They won’t install a media email feed to their website. They have stopped the information flow during disasters and Boulder OEM is playing a dangerous game. Something must be done to change this culture of ignorance.
Offices of Emergency Management , OEM, are set up nationwide as part of American sheriffs departments. They are supposed to co ordinate efforts in disasters such as the recent forest fires here in Colorado. But often times they are the last to know. During the
Boulder Office of Emergency Management in action, but what action?Four Mile fire here in Boulder in 2010 they were essentially clueless as to what was going on in the field. Their media relations was terrible or non existent and their ability to deliver information about the fire did not exist. Information had to be gathered the old fashioned way, sneaking up onto fire lines, phone calls to fire, and sheriff, scanner traffic.
In 2012 during the near disastrous Flagstaff Fire the information from Boulder OEM was better, but still late and it was never distributed. There was no flow to media and the public. OEM did not send out media releases during this life threatening crisis. So for media organizations who depend of media releases sent to their news email, there were none. Why not? OEM decided that they would send tweets to twitter to alert media of new information. The problem with that is that a tweet is not a news release and only 20% of the population including media check twitter. OEM demanded that everyone go to their site instead of having a simple feed to everyone elses email for media updates. The move proved to be incredibly thoughtless and narrow minded. In an attempt to become “new media” Boulder OEM killed it’s ability to get out information.
They then insisted that they were the only ones with correct information thereby putting censorship on all fire information. Being that OEM is usually the last to know and the last to tell you, they are useless is a raging inferno like the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs. Only the Fire Department and Sheriffs department officers on the ground can help. For news media it means getting in there to get the story or listening to Emergency scanners.
Boulder OEM tells me that they no longer send out press releases nor do you have the ability for media to sign up to get updates. So they are essentially useless. OEM should have a feed to media. It is a common practice. The city of Boulder and Boulder County made huge mistakes with the Flagstaff Fire by not sending out media releases neither. They make an even bigger mistake by not having an email feed. On top of that their media relations designate KIm Kobel didn’t return phone calls during critical times. An email feed is dead easy to install and can be done on any website. The fact that they didn’t and won’t do it is pure negligence. No one from the city, county or OEM media relations staff would return our phone calls regarding this story. Tells you something right there.
from a city where nanny knows best
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado
US fire fighting Air Attack fleet terribly inadequate
Jul 7th
This is nothing new. The condition of Americas fire fighting fleet has gone from horrible in the 1990s to terrible in 2012. The United States government has let us down. They have not provided the air attack fleet necessary to protect the American people from the 200 devouring Forrest fires that are destroying the USA this summer.
In the 1990s and early 2000’s America used old WWII bombers to fight fires. Many of them crashed. In 2012 the US has less than 250 aircraft contracted and some of them sit while fires rage across America. They sit because the US Forest Service refuses to pay them. In other cases Air National guard C-130s now sit because of the poor training given guard pilots to fight forest fires. They have been crashing too.
The US has thousands of big airplanes capable of being retrofitted to carry water and retardants to wild land fires,but the government has completely lost it’s way.
Sitting here typing at a computer in a smoke filled room in Boulder Colorado, this week I have seen first hand the devastation cause by forest fires to Colorado cities. Where was the air attack in the early hours of these fires? Parked in hangers 1000’s of miles away.
The US needs at least 100 air tankers It has 32. They need them on the tarmac in Denver ready to in 10 minutes not two day latter after the fire has destroyed 100’s of homes as happened in Ft Collins Colorado in June. We need another 300 air attack panes of all sizes. We need 400 helicopters ready to go. We need an air fleet of 1500 aircraft capable of carrying water to fight fires. We have 232. Just terrible.
What’s left when the air attack does not come. America is burning and our government has let us down. Shame on them.The Department of the Interior, FEMA USFS, Congress, Senate, Air force, National Guard have all let America down. This is Katrina all over again and it is happening on president Obama’s watch. It is also happening in my state and I am sick of watching it burn. Obama needs to take responsibility and get us the air fleet we need. End all the buck passing.
from fire ravaged Colorado
Jann Scott
Boulder, Colorado
