Knows the territory - when and where to strike

So clearly should those who seek to warn us. Today 2 March 2009, an estimated 5 million Victorians got a SMS in the afternoon reminding them that wind speeds will be very high overnight, as will fire danger.The message was nothing new but the medium was. Seemed personal .A warning you recieve over the phone is personal and that makes it powerful - for now . A sense of Powerlessness however should not make us noise up too early or with no direct action in mind for the words .

Clearly the government can't keep doing this when summer northerly changes happen
1-because these risk factors happen often and also
2-because both the effect and the message will lose any motivating effect ( nice to get a call) because the message respects no territory and identifies no action .
Why have our leaders done this might be an interesting question .At least this time there was a warning of sorts.
SMS 's could be very useful in the future, but how do you make sure it really helps( eg stay or escape) and is correct and not treated as generalized "cry wolf".

Do not our leaders recognise that however good the governance, suck eggs advice is the norm in safe times, and therefore cry wolf could be expected to be the normal risk in dangerous places manned by the media and map savy alone .

The next biggest disaster in Australia's history was caused by a landslide in an area where governments assummed no landslide risk. How do you overcome the dilemma? You don't rely on a map or some quickfiz advice to tell you . You have people operating professionally in the area whose training and experience ( very important ) is sufficient to know what the unfamiliar and complex behaviour of the hard to see wolf is.You have to have seen a few to start with!