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.