To the Editor:

Re ''The Silence of the Alert System; Experts Urge Overhaul of Plan Unused Even on Sept. 11'' (news article, Dec. 21):

My first negative experience with the Emergency Alert System, then known as the Emergency Broadcast System, was in 1991 during Hurricane Bob. At that time, very detailed and informative local weather reports for Long Island were pre-empted by broad and far less useful alert system warnings.

For severe-weather alerts, why not improve and rely on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radio broadcasts?

In a true national crisis many modes of communications, including our cherished cellphones, may fail. Perhaps then, and only then, some form of rudimentary alert system might be useful. In the meantime, one hopes that the Emergency Alert System will remain quiet and let CNN, the Weather Channel and the other regular radio and TV broadcasters do their job without interference.


Florham Park, N.J., Dec. 21, 2001

Drawing (Natasha Tibbott)