JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Teton County Emergency Management will be testing outdoor warning sirens on Tuesday, May 25, and Wednesday, May 26.
Siren technicians will visit siren locations in Teton Village, Teton Pines, Wilson, downtown Jackson, Gregory Lane, Adams Canyon, and Hoback Junction to test the sirens to ensure they are operational for emergencies. Those in the area may hear a few short bursts from these sirens, but for no longer than one minute at a time.
“The audible ranges are models, and don’t exactly reflect what is heard on the ground,” said Rich Ochs, coordinator for Teton County Emergency Management.
Audibility of the sirens depends on terrain, atmospheric conditions, and whether an individual is indoors or outdoors during siren activation.
Outdoor warning sirens are designed to do exactly what they state: warn people who are outdoors that something is wrong. They are not designed to penetrate inside of buildings, so residents should not expect to hear a siren clearly from indoors.
“Most people associate outdoor warning sirens with tornadoes,” Ochs shared. “Our sirens are for all hazards and hearing a three-minute siren wail means that you should tune to local radio, All-Hazards Weather Radio, trusted online local media, or your phone for an alert to find out what is going on. Sirens are part of our comprehensive public alerting system,”
Why something old school like sirens? Aren’t they a bit passé? Simply put, a loss of internet would ground many conventional means of communication. The Nixle notification system (www.nixle.com), alerts to all cell phones in Teton County with FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alerts, messages to local radio and television broadcasters via the Emergency Alert System, and through social media like Facebook (@teton.wy.ema) and Twitter (@tetonwyo_em) could all be compromised should the valley experience a major internet outage.
“The problem is when we lose internet, cell service, phone lines, or power, some of these systems won’t work. Sirens are resilient because they don’t use complicated infrastructure to operate,” Ochs added.
