True, but then... which authorities?

I mean, ideally, there would only be one source of official information, but often there are multiple sources, all claiming to be official. Not all of them are of the same quality.

Take hurricanes... You have (at least):

• local Radio announcer
• local TV announcer
• Televised press conference interviewing various local, state and federal "authorities". This is an endless parade of city officials, police, fire, etc.
• National Hurricane Center people

Information from this many sources can be inconsistent. It can also arrive at different times.

I'm not a Ham radio person, but I did use my scanner to listen in on the ham traffic between the various shelters and the main coordinating person. I knew when shelters filled up / had a roof blow off. I had this information well before it made it back out the official distribution channels.

Another explanation for this effect could be the way most command networks are set up. Most common are tree structures... one guy at the top, a few executives, some middle managers and a lot of workers. Commands flow down, but information (usually) flows up. You may not be able to get the "big picture" yourself, since that requires information from multiple sources. But you often have as good (or better) access to information about your immediate situation, since you're right there, where it's being collected and pushed up the tree.

Ultimately, you're responsible for your own safety. Compare what you get from official sources with what you see and hear, and then place your bet. :-(