An annual test of the tsunami warning system this week showed the system works, said North Olympic Peninsula county emergency management personnel.
“It went off without a hitch,” said John Ebner, Jefferson County Emergency Management Department logistics section chief.
“It went very well,” said Jamye Wisecup, program coordinator for the Clallam County Emergency Management Department.
Sirens sounded for three minutes at LaPush, Clallam Bay, Lower Elwha River Road, Port Angeles Marine Drive, Dungeness Way, Diamond Point, Port Townsend marina, Point Hudson and Fort Worden State Park.
Neah Bay tested its equipment Tuesday, Wisecup said.
The full siren — as opposed to test tone chimes — sounded beginning at 10:15 a.m. in the test held once a year.
The timing of the statewide drill, called “Chill, It’s Just a Drill,” coincided with the drop-cover-hold earthquake drill done by schools and some businesses and agencies.
How many heard it?
“The people who typically hear the chimes for 10 seconds heard it,” Wisecup said. “We wanted to test the wail because we would use that in the case of a real event.”
Bob Hamlin, program manager for the Jefferson County Emergency Management Department, said 20 to 30 people contacted him to say they heard the siren.
“I got a lot of feedback from the community,” he said. “It went off for so long that it was a real attention-getter.”
Wisecup said she received 15 calls from people who heard the siren — and 30 calls from people who didn’t and wondered why.
“It’s not designed to be heard indoors,” she said.
Invest in NOAA radios
Instead, she urged residents to invest in All Hazards Weather Radios from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
“That goes off the same time that sirens do,” she said.
Hamlin agreed that the siren is intended to be heard on the beaches, but he said many who contacted him did hear it indoors.
If a tsunami were approaching, the sirens would go off as they did Wednesday but without a voice message saying the sound was only a test.
The sirens would then go off at half-hour or hour increments, depending on how quickly the tsunami was expected to hit, Wisecup said.
Those who want to report hearing the siren can do so today in East Jefferson County by phoning Hamlin at 360-385-3831, ext. 528, or on the website at www.jeffcoeoc.org.
In Clallam County, phone Wisecup at 360-417-2525 or email jwisecup@co.clallam.wa.us.
For information on weather radios, visit www.weather.gov/nwr.
Emergency management offices can help program them.
