If you're not awake by 9am tomorrow morning you will be by 9:01. Mobile county emergency officials plan to test their public warning system in the morning.
The system includes 5 new sirens, one of which is located on the east end of Dauphin Island. This one is a replacement to the siren that Ivan took out a couple of years ago. If you happen to be located within approximately a one-mile radius you're likely to hear it.
If you happen to be sleeping in out toward the west end of Dauphin Island you probably won't even hear the test. A siren had been located out on the west end. It fell victim to a storm and has not been replaced.
Emergency sirens to sound off in county warning system test
Mobile County emergency officials said they will test their 47-siren warning system with a reveille at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The system includes five new sirens that were installed this year, including two in downtown Mobile -- in front of Calloway-Smith Middle School and at the Wallace Tunnel -- that will have automated voice capabilities.
David Roberts, an electronics officer, said those sirens on Wednesday will tell people that this is just a test.
The other three new sirens are on the east end of Dauphin Island, Zirlott Park in Bayou La Batre and near Citronelle High School. Those emit the wailing noise most people associate with sirens, Roberts said.
The Dauphin Island siren is a replacement for one that was destroyed during Hurricane Ivan. Another siren on the west end of Dauphin Island was destroyed during Katrina and has not yet been replaced, Roberts said.
Each siren can be heard across a one-mile radius, although atmospheric elements, such as wind, humidity and pollution can affect a siren's range, he said.
The sirens originally were built to warn people of a military attack during the Cold War, Roberts said. Now they're used to warn people of hazardous waste spills, he said.
Roberts said in the decade he has worked for the agency, the alarms have never been sounded off for an emergency.
If people ever hear a siren, they should go inside and turn on the television or radio to see why the warning was sounded, said Walt Dickerson, head of the Emergency Management Agency.
The county used to test the sirens weekly -- every Friday at noon -- but have stopped doing that, and now only test them monthly, Roberts said. Emergency officials changed the policy because they didn't want people to hear the sirens too often and become desensitized to the noise, he said.