It's unfortunate that many smaller and even mid-size cities hardly have any true local content from their radio stations or someone who can suddenly jump on the air to report some rapidly developing emergency. In many areas, local TV will be a better source of information since they still have reporters who can actually go out, gather local information, and then report the news. Unfortunately, the lack of portable radios that can tune into the new digital signals is a serious drawback.

Not that long ago, I moved near some railroad tracks and potential chemical spills from a derailment is why I purchased a NOAA radio with SAME capability, but I eventually realized that the chances that the local authorities would utilize the EAS to report a train derailment apparently was nil.

To its credit, that city does have its own low power AM radio station that it can activate during emergencies. It was activated once in recent memory when a wildfire was approaching. Unfortunately, although that low power radio station is a good way to disseminate information, it's some obscure frequency at the edge of the dial, so it's useless in actually alerting people, like in the middle of the night, since no one will be tuned to it. The local authorities would likely need to rely on things like reverse 911 or patrol cars making announcements on their PA systems to wake people up in the middle of the night.