PORT ANGELES – Workers installed a tsunami warning siren on the Port Angeles waterfront Tuesday, adding to the growing network of warning sirens and alert broadcast devices along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific coast.
The siren, about 12 feet tall atop a 40-foot tower, is also capable of delivering a voice message to give people directions or to coordinate an evacuation.
“We’re happy to have this capability and add it to the other notification systems that we have,” said Dan McKeen, chief of the Port Angeles Fire Department.
Similar warning sirens, part of the All-Hazard Alert Broadcast Network, have already been installed in Neah Bay and LaPush in Clallam County, where the risk of a tsunami from the Pacific Ocean is much higher than on the Strait.
Those communities regularly practice evacuations in the event of a tidal wave.
New sirens are planned to be erected this summer near the Lower Elwha tribal center, in the Dungeness Valley and at Clallam Bay, said Bob Martin, manager of the Clallam County Emergency Management Division.
