Mixed Emergency Test
Posted on March 10, 2011
Time 1:36 PM CST, Thur. Mar. 10, 2011, reporting from KDX near St. Louis, MO., USA.
Time 1:36 PM CST, Thur. Mar. 10, 2011, reporting from KDX near St. Louis, MO., USA.
At 1:30 PM all the warning sirens from all directions turned on and are still sounding. Since it is not the first of the month it is not the monthly test.
NOAA Weather has no severe weather in their forecast for the region, nor was there any posting about what I learned a minute later (next paragraph).
I tried two local stations known to have live staff, and one was giving sports updates, the other a string of commercials, but once the commercials were fully played, there was a test of EAS, not federally, but locally, naming this The Annual Tornado Drill.
That’s odd. No one mentioned such a thing even though I’m in media and usually know things the public hasn’t heard about.
Summary: For 6-minutes I didn’t know which way was up or weather I should go down (several puns intended).
No announcement will be made on KDX because the people in other areas might not have tornado drills. How are we supposed to know?
OPINION: We don’t stand a chance in an actual emergency, but we’ll spend last minutes running around asking if it is an emergency.
