Next week, the Department of Homeland Security will replace its color-coded terrorism alert system with a new system that is promised to be more effective. It’s about time.

A few months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the federal government rolled out an alert system that used colors — yellow, orange, red, etc. — to describe the terrorism threat level. Except for one brief burst of red, the threat level has been continuously orange and, for nearly a decade now, late night comics have been making fun of the color-coded alerts because, simply put, they convey almost no meaning.

In typical government fashion, something that took only weeks or months to cook up and execute has been almost imperious to change. But now, DHS has apparently reached the same conclusion that average Americans arrived at about nine years ago: The color-coded alerts don’t work. Instead, DHS will announce either “elevated” alerts or, in cases where terrorism is impending, “imminent” alerts. Both are to be accompanied by detailed information and both types will automatically end after two weeks.

The new system, if it works as advertised, would be a vast improvement. Better late than never.

— Austin Daily Herald, April 22