After the funding cuts, communities are waiting for money for the warning system

• The funding cuts threaten the warning systems in the USA.
• Communities are waiting for compensation for projects.
• Experts warn of reduced readiness for extraordinary situations.

Warning: This could be a real extraordinary situation — especially as it relates to extraordinary situations regarding extraordinary situations.

Recently, the funding was cut for a non-profit corporation that distributed federal funds among communities in the USA, warning about yet another victim when it closes at the end of the month: the stability of the extraordinary warning system in the state.

In 2022, Congress authorized $136 million for the Next Generation Warning System grant program, intended to assist communities in rural, tribal, and other underserved communities to improve and enhance warning systems that inform people about evacuation orders, Amber alerts, and tornado warnings.

According to the CPB, which administers these grant funds, it will close on March 30 after Congress and President Donald Trump cut its funding last year.

This could leave millions in grant dollars allocated but not disbursed to communities, putting dozens of projects aimed at preserving life in extraordinary situations at risk. The need for reliable and reserve warning systems became tragically evident last year when severe weather in Texas claimed the lives of at least 136 people, many of whom were trapped in areas with inadequate mobile connectivity and without sirens.

Community radio stations are often on the front lines of extraordinary communications, able to reach areas with inadequate mobile connectivity or broadband access.

"Our people are really relying on us during extraordinary situations," said Tami Grim, executive director of KSUT-FM in Ignacio, Colorado, which serves nearly 300,000 people in four counties and five tribal areas across the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. This area is prone to forest fires and rapid flooding.

The funds for the Next Generation Warning System are being processed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which provides its CPB, a more than 60-year-old organization that serves federal funds to 1,500 community television and radio stations across the country.

The grant in the form of funding could be used for modernizing equipment, expanding warning systems, or obtaining training. Communities needed these improvements: more than 270 applications for the first round, of which 44 were awarded a total of $21.6 million. The second round is for $48 million with 175 applications.

This summer, KSUT received a grant of $537,288 for improving the safety of its aging towers. "This, in essence, doubles and triples, a lot of equipment on these towers," Grim said.

These funds covered the installation of generators, solar panels, and batteries to support operations during power outages, and also a remote management system for the maintenance of facilities provided in severe winter months, when many of them could only be accessed by snowmobiles.

A few days after signing the contract for the KSUT grant, it received a notice to stop work after FEMA suspended spending, prompting CPB to issue a notice. In February, the station was informed that it could resume work, but in April it received a new notice to stop.

Now, as CPB is closing, the corporation informed the station that it does not know how it will be funded. Grim emphasized that with the liquidation of $1.1 billion for community radio stations in Congress, the loss of funds for their warning systems has become "a hit in two stages."

"This is really disappointing, especially since it has nothing to do with the warning system in rural areas," she said. "This is simply an absolute basic need."

One of the reasons why community radio stations are seeking NGWS grants lies in the aging infrastructure that was not designed for more extreme climates.

KVPR-FM in Fresno, California, has been offline for the last five years due to extreme weather conditions and forest fires, which took it off the air. The generator at the facility ran out of fuel, and crews were unable to reach it to refill.

"These are the same signals that our listeners usually receive about extraordinary situations, but these are signals that our object can’t send and do not allow us to send these messages," said Joe Moore, president and general manager of KVPR.

KVPR received a grant of $38,000 for the installation of a reserve transmitter, which had already been at its site, but the notice for the stop came just before they started submitting applications. The aftermath is spreading across the listener zone of KVPR: this is one of two leading stations that spread messages to other speakers in six counties of San-Joaquin.

With the project on pause, Moore hopes that the forest fire does not destroy the object this season. "We could be off the air for several months."

The situation with the grant program is reflected in the comments of experts about the fact that the cuts in personnel and funding in FEMA undermine the readiness of the country to extraordinary situations. Since January, FEMA has lost employees, cut programs, and reduced spending, which, according to experts, undermines the ability of the country to prepare for and respond after a disaster.

CPB declined to comment for this article. But in a statement last week, it stated that FEMA "takes responsibility for the distribution of funds; otherwise, most funds for FY22 and all funds for FY23 and FY24 remain unallocated."

This month, FEMA opened applications for 2025 for states and tribes to replace CPB. The application was open for only nine days and anticipated that only five recipients would be chosen, each of whom would receive up to $8 million.

FEMA did not respond to questions about whether it would itself distribute already allocated funds. Stations, such as Wyoming PBS, which received a grant of $2.26 million for replacing equipment at 39 sites, are reluctant to begin work, according to its general director Joann Kile.

KSUT in Colorado hopes that someone compensates it $13,000, which it has already spent on a provider that simply needs to be replaced. But the rest of the project remains paused.

"We simply continue to be busy with repairs and hope that our towers will remain standing," Grim said. "Especially with aging equipment."

Tags: USA/Politics/Weather