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Siren test reveals some gaps

One minute before noon Wednesday, the Alert Carolina safety campaign launched with an emergency siren that could be heard – for the most part – all around campus.

The siren was just a practice run of the campus’s new outdoor warning system.

“The test was successful,” said Jeff McCracken, chief of police and director of the Department of Public Safety. “But it did confirm there are a few technical issues still.”

Some of those issues were the limited range that the siren tone reached.

The four alert towers are located by Hinton James Residence Hall, behind the Dogwood Parking Deck by UNC Hospitals, outside Winston Residence Hall and near the Giles Horney Building off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

After the test, officials are considering the addition of an alert tower on North Campus to increase coverage, McCracken said.

Sophomores Jessica Swoveland and Kate Reak were on South Campus when the siren went off.

“I thought it was just a fire truck at first going really slow,” Swoveland said.

Reak said she heard the siren, but the announcement afterward that said it was a test was hard to understand as she walked by the Rams Head Recreation Center.

“Anytime you put a warning system outside there are going to be issues with sound around large buildings,” McCracken said.

The sirens are designed only to inform people outside.

Normally the sirens would sound in the case of a campuswide emergency such as a chemical spill, an armed or dangerous person on campus or a tornado sighting nearby.

Beyond the sirens, UNC has several programs that would be used to spread information, such as sending out text messages and updating the Alert Carolina Web site.

Junior Kara Schreier, who was studying in the Undergraduate Library when the sirens sounded, said she could barely hear them.

“I probably would not have thought anything of them if I had not known they were setting them off,” she said, adding that she knew about the test from a campus e-mail.

Despite the different volume levels, McCracken said it’s important to know how to respond to the alert.

“Any time you hear the siren, seek shelter and go inside to the closest facility,” McCracken said. “That is the important thing to know.”

The siren system also was tested once in December while students were on Winter Break.

McCracken said many aspects of the system, such as the tone duration and the P.A. message, changed between the first test and Wednesday to improve effectiveness.

Officials have yet to test the entire system simultaneously. “The next step would be to do a complete test of the system to include text-messaging as well,” McCracken said.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.

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