NOAA weather alert radio question

[mpic]

Looking to buy one of these, but have a question. Does it only do weather alerts or does it also have current storm info during and after the hurricane?

[brunota2003]

In short, the wx radios cover just about everything...from watches and warnings, to current conditions and forecasts, and are updated about every hour (give or take, depending on which product it is). Watches and warnings, etc are obviously updated as needed.

For more detail:

All-Hazards Emergency Messages on NOAA Weather Radio

NWR broadcasts National Weather Service (NWS) warnings, watches, forecasts and other non-weather related hazard information 24 hours a day. During an emergency, NWS forecasters interrupt routine broadcasts and send a special tone activating local weather radios. Weather radios equipped with a special alarm tone feature sound an alert to give you immediate information about a life-threatening situation.

NWR broadcasts warnings and post-event information for all types of hazards: weather (e.g., tornadoes, floods), natural (e.g., earthquakes, forest fires and volcanic activity), technological (e.g., chemical releases, oil spills, nuclear power plant emergencies, etc.), and national emergencies (e.g., terrorist attacks). Working with other Federal agencies and the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Emergency Alert System (EAS), NWR is an all-hazards radio network, making it the most comprehensive weather and emergency information available to the public.

Life-threatening weather emergency messages are alerted on NWR. Many of those same weather-related emergency messages are also broadcast via the EAS.
Non-Weather Related Emergency Messages

For non-weather emergencies, NWS activates the system at the request of local and/or state officials. NWS does not initiate the contact or the message. Local or state officials provide text information about the non-weather hazard directly to the local NWS offices. NWS offices set up agreements to speed the process, since minutes make a difference. In most areas, the local or state Office of Emergency Management or Preparedness, civil defense, police or mayor/commissioner sets up linkages to send messages on systems such as the EAS and NWR.

Source (with more links and details):
http://www.weather.gov/nwr/allhazard.htm

[brunota2003]

Also, here is a list of EAS Event Codes:
http://www.weather.gov/os/eas_codes.shtml

Note that there are no codes for forecasts/current obs (including marine data if you live next to the ocean, like I did)...reason being, those are usually on 24/7 and do not set off the EAS.