Monthly Testing of Clark County's Warning Sirens Begins Next Month
Tuesday, May 19th, 2015 -- 1:18 PM
-Starting next month, Clark County residents will hear the county's warning sirens on the 1st Wednesday of every month.John Ross, Clark County's Emergency Management Director, explained that they'll be testing the sirens every month to make sure they work when needed.
He said, "We want to test them because, obviously, we want to make sure they work if they're ever needed. We don't want to not test them and find out there's a problem when we're really counting on them to work. Monthly testing, counties do it differently. Some do weekly testing, some do monthly testing. It was decided through conversations that monthly testing would work and be sufficient. Tests will be on the 1st Wednesday of the month, with June's being June 3rd, between 5 and 6pm. Obviously, if there's severe weather in the area, or threatening weather, we'll postpone the test. But our goal is to make sure that everything works the way it's supposed to and, if we do have a problem, we can get it fixed without running the risk of the sirens failing when we really need to use them."
John stressed that his will only be during the summer months.
He added, "We avoid it during the winter just because of cold weather, ice and snow and with the mechanics in some of the sirens, we obviously don't want to run the risk of doing damage if there was ice in some of the mechanisms. Obviously, tornadoes and severe weather can happen anytime of the year, but the odds are much less during the winter months. But then we'd resume the tests again in the spring."
John also asks for your patience because they understand some may find the sirens a little annoying when they do go off, but he hopes you understand why it's being done.
"We understand that, to some people, they may think the sirens go off too much already with testing for things such as noon and things like that," he added. "But, we hope that they would certainly understand the need for us to do these test on a regular basis and we certainly appreciate their patience and understanding while we do that. I think the benefit to the communities is very substantial in making sure those sirens are in good working condition and are preforming the way they are expected too, especially if threatening weather approaches and we need to use them for their intended purpose."
The monthly tests will begin next month on June 3rd.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.