Does your city have air raid sirens?

[Colt45]

I've never seen any around here. That is all.

 

[iamwiz82]

They are warning sirens, mainly used for tornadoes, but they are here.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
They are warning sirens, mainly used for tornadoes, but they are here.

Same here. They all started as air raid sirens during the cold war, but most towns now use them as general disaster or tornado sirens now.

 

[Colt45]

are they the big mechanical ones? or some sort of modern electronic thing..?

 

[theknight571]

The city doesn't...but all 3 chemical plants, in and near the city, have them.

Our neighboring city has them and we can usually hear them during storms/tests.

- TK

 

[iamwiz82]

They are big poles with a speaker on the top, sitting perpendicular to the pole, and a control box about 10 feet below that. The speaker spins in a circle, screeching.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Colt45
are they the big mechanical ones? or some sort of modern electronic thing..?

We have a mix here. Most are still the large cold war era ones, but some are newer, smaller ones.

 

[mb]

I would think so, being as we're right next to a very large weapons plant... but I have never seen them, so I don't know.

 

[meltdown75]

Windsor, Ontario - Yes.

I've heard them once, a few summers ago when the sky was green and the wind was whipping. A creepy sound, to be sure.

 

[bandana163]

Yes, since the fifties.

 

Yes - ours are electronic versions, not hand-cranked sirens.

 

[Anubis]

yes where i ive in upstate NY has them, however they arnt "air raid" sirens, they go off whenever there is a fire to call in all th evolenteer figher fighters, however they sound like air raid sirens, friend from europe thought they were when they heard them the first time

 

[MDE]

Tornado sirens, but I guess they could double as air raid sirens.

 

[Insane3D]

Nope...none here in NH that I know of. I think Seabrook used to have them when the nuclear plant was running though...

Edit:

I guess Seabrook is still active...

*shrug*

 

[Leper Messiah]

yup. well, they're really used for tornadoes, but they started off like that. Go off the first saturday of every month, 1 P.M. Scares the crap out of my dog, or did until he went deaf...

 

[Horus]

No air raid sirens...but my old high school has a bomb shelter...long since condemned...

 

[dabuddha]

I'm assuming DC has em.

 

[AdamSnow]

My town has the old crank style on top of the fire hall...

This is a small town with a population of about 1000... we could all hear it if needed... it's very loud.

 

[ggnl]

Yeah. They use it to alert the volunteer fire department now, so I get to hear it quite often.

 

[sharkeeper]

Folks the sirens are the same but the way they are sounded are completely different.

Typically there are two distinct operating modes: Attack and Warn.

Attack mode is up/down basically the motor is switched on and off so the siren pitch is always traveling up or down.

Warn mode is continuously running for minutes at a time depending on your emergency plan of operation.

If you hear sirens that you never heard or are unfamiliar please tune into local radio/tv broadcast as if a true condition of emergency is under way, the emergency broadcast system will activate and you will have instructions on what you should do.

Most communities do test at 1PM sharp on first day of workweek, etc. That's what they do back home.

 

[ZOXXO]

My town still sounds a siren at noon each day.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: Kvaerner Masa
Folks the sirens are the same but the way they are sounded are completely different.

Typically there are two distinct operating modes: Attack and Warn.

Attack mode is up/down basically the motor is switched on and off so the siren pitch is always traveling up or down.

Warn mode is continuously running for minutes at a time depending on your emergency plan of operation.

If you hear sirens that you never heard or are unfamiliar please tune into local radio/tv broadcast as if a true condition of emergency is under way, the emergency broadcast system will activate and you will have instructions on what you should do.

Most communities do test at 1PM sharp on first day of workweek, etc. That's what they do back home.

Not sure where you live, but in Ft. Worth, they use the up/down pitch for tornadoes/violent weather.

Also, when the sirens go off, you should check the news anyways (unless it's a known test)... A Tornado can drop out of a clear sky in minutes.

 

[StageLeft]

Tornado ones, which I can't hear where I live, even though everyone in my town is supposed to be able to hear them. Reminds me, I'll email city hall. Thanks!

 

[BigJ]

I live right next to one of Northrup Grumman's main divisions, so yes.

 

[91TTZ]

I liked the worthless nuclear attack drills that schools used to have in the 50's-60's. Things like that are mainly just to make you feel better, as if stop/duck/cover can really make you withstand a nuclear blast.

South Park referenced this in an episode about the volcano. The town had volcano drills and showed an "informative video" In the video, they show the kid stop/duck/cover and the lava jumps harmlessly over him, but when the volcano really erupted, the lava just turned the kid into a skeleton.