The Patriot’s Day storm was downright dangerous. It was windy. It was rainy. Rising floodwater and falling tree limbs damaged homes and vehicles. People died.

Despite these challenges, fire/rescue and police personnel, as well as Central Maine Power line workers, all acted quickly and bravely and should be congratulated. They worked ’round the clock so we could be safe.

Despite these successes, emergency management officials need to make improvements in their reaction to disasters. Primarily, the state needs to set up an central information service so Mainers know where they can turn in times of trouble.

While driving along the Maine Turnpike Monday, I tuned into the local National Public Radio station because I wanted to know what was going on around the area. All I got was a lullaby of classical music. Normally, this would have been fine, but not today – not when trees were snapping and roads were washing out. I wanted to be informed, not soothed.

There should have been some radio station out there with continuous coverage of the storm to help people stay informed. We want to know how much rain is falling and when it’s expected to stop? Where is flooding likely? What should we do when water enters our basement? When should we start boiling water? Where is it safe to drive? Who do we call when a tree falls on our house? In other words, give us ways to protect our homes, our families and ourselves. Don’t give us classical music.

Later that day, I wasn’t able to get back home to Windham so I considered staying at a shelter in the Saco area. I figured going to the American Red Cross Web site would provide me a list of such shelters, and possibly what they offered for services. Instead of a list of shelters, the full-page icon: “2007 Real Heroes Awards” greeted me in big type on the site’s main page. (See inset.) That was unfortunate.

During the storm, the American Red Cross should have had information easily accessible on its site. That night, I searched and searched but couldn’t find anything useful. The information was probably somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. And that’s the point. In this supposed Information Age, we need to know the place we can turn for comprehensive information during times of trouble.

So, here’s a possible solution: Once the governor declares a state of emergency, each county’s emergency management agency should take over the radio airwaves in order to broadcast useful and reliable information. Then, all we’d have to do is turn on the radio and the information we seek will be there.

A “test, and only a test, of the emergency broadcast system” is a lovely thing, but let’s do more than test the system. Let’s use it.

-John Balentine, editor