Teton County, Wyo. to test emergency warning sirens on Tuesday
JACKSON, Wyo. (KIFI) – Teton County Emergency Management will be testing outdoor warning sirens on Tuesday, Oct. 18.
Emergency Management personnel will visit siren locations in Teton Village, Teton Pines, 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.
An interactive map of outdoor warning siren locations along with estimated audible distances is available HERE.
“The audible ranges are models, and don’t exactly reflect what is heard on the ground,” Teton County Emergency Management coordinator Rich Ochs.
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 that: 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 said. “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.”
Outdoor warning sirens could be activated for severe weather, hazardous materials incidents, wildfire evacuations, and more.
Teton County Emergency Management is asking for the public’s assistance on Oct. 18, by completing a simple survey if the sirens were heard. This data provides Emergency Management staff with real-world data to help better understand the audible range of the sirens. The survey can be accessed HERE.
In addition to sirens, Teton County Emergency Management can issue text and email alerts to subscribers with its Nixle notification system (www.nixle.com), alerts to all cell phones in Teton County with FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), messages to local radio and television broadcasters via the Emergency Alert System (EAS), and through social media like Facebook (@teton.wy.ema) and Twitter (@tetonwyo_em).
“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 said.
