Caution before securing lightning alert system
To the editor:
The death and serious injury caused by the recent lightning storm on the Beach is indeed a tragedy and saddens everyone.
Immediately following news of the incident, there were calls for the Town to install a lightning detection and warning system. In fact, the Town’s Public Safety Advisory Committee had already been exploring the possibility. The Observer ran an editorial supporting the notion, the News-Press ran one essentially opposing it, urging caution for a variety of reasons. The Sand Paper has yet to weigh in.
I’m coming down on the side of caution. There is a list of realities that we should consider very seriously before making any knee-jerk decisions about installing such a system.
First, every sentient human being already comes equipped with a lightning detection and warning system. It’s called your eyes, ears and brain. It’s pretty simple. When you see a big ugly dark cloud coming toward you and see flashes of lightning as far away as ten miles and start hearing rumblings of thunder, get the (bleep) off the beach!
Second, will everyone (an out-of-town tourist, for example) who hears a warning siren know what it means, and, for that matter, will they bother to heed it? We are warned that smoking kills, yet people smoke. We are warned that helmets save motorcyclists’ lives, yet some people won’t wear them. We all know that seat belts work, but even with laws requiring them, some people don’t bother to fasten them.
Third, such a system will have to be tested on a weekly basis. Will a tourist on the beach at noon Wednesday (a favorite time for testing), know that it’s a test, or will they all run for cover?
Next, a system of sirens needs a power source. Anyone who’s lived here for any time knows that it doesn’t always take much of a storm for the whole island, or big parts of it, to lose electricity. At the time when the sirens would theoretically be needed the most, will they crap out, or will each one be equipped with an emergency generator that will kick in in case of a power failure?
Finally, by installing such a system, the Town (read “We, the taxpayers”) would be opening itself up to monumental liability. The existence of such a system implies that the government has assumed the responsibility and takes the individual off the hook for using common sense. Once the system is installed, if for any reason it should malfunction and someone would be injured or killed in a lightning storm that went unwarned, the lawsuit and payout that would follow would make the quarter of a million dollars spent to settle the pool controversy seem like chump change.
Over the last 10 years, from the federal government down to recent local town councils, there has been a tendency to go “Fire, Aim, Ready.” Let’s be sure we’ve thought this one through thoroughly before we act.
Jay Light
Fort Myers Beach