Although the state has planned a test of the tsunami communications system today, the sirens that would herald the rising of the sea are not expected to sound on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The state Department of Emergency Management also chose today for a statewide emergency preparedness day, encouraging schools, government offices and private businesses to hold an earthquake drill at 10:15 a.m.
Clallam County employees in the courthouse will hit the ground in a “Drop, Hold and Cover” earthquake drill, said Bob Martin, manager of the Clallam County Emergency Management Division.
“We live in an earthquake zone and we’re capable of having one,” Martin said.
“It is important that people have some consciousness of what to do if the building starts shaking.”
A test of the tsunami communications system is also planned for today, but the sirens installed in Port Angeles and Port Townsend will not be activated, said emergency officials in both areas.
Other tsunami sirens are located in LaPush, near the Lower Elwha tribal center outside Port Angeles and in Neah Bay.
The state emergency management department does not plan to activate those alarms, or the new alarm in Port Angeles, said Dan McKeen, chief of the Port Angeles Fire Department.
McKeen said his department needs more training to operate the new siren, installed in June on the 700 block of Marine Drive, near the Port Angeles boat haven.
“We need that training to know all how it works,” McKeen said.
In Port Townsend, two sirens – one at Fort Warden and one downtown at Water and Monroe streets – will not sound either because they have not been “optimized,” said Bob Hamlin, manager of the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management.
“We’re going to put it off for a couple of weeks,” Hamlin said.
“We don’t want to set them off and not be able to stop them.”
Hamlin and McKeen said that before their departments plan to test the alarms, they will notify city residents so they won’t be alarmed.
The earthquake drill encouraged by the state is part of National Preparedness Month, which overlaps with Weather Radio Awareness Month.
