Students struggle to hear sirens during tornado warning
Baku, March 2 (AZERTAC). A tornado warning for St. Louis County led students across campus to seek shelter—though many students could barely hear the sirens.
According to Mark Bagby, Washington University`s emergency management coordinator, there have been no reports that sirens did not go off as expected, and a silent test conducted this morning proved the system to be operational.
In a discussion between school officials and students Tuesday afternoon, two students reported that they had heard the sirens. Other students reported not hearing anything or not paying attention.
Sophomore Nick Kavanagh expected the sirens on top of his building to go off, but he heard nothing—even when he was standing directly outside of Nemerov.
“They 100 percent did not go off,” Kavanagh said. “I could hear in the distance the ones coming off from the top of Graham Chapel, but they were very, very faint, and if the wind had been stronger, I probably would not have heard them.”
Because it was so quiet, he believed it to be a “safe” warning, as opposed to an actual tornado warning.
According to Steve Hoffner, associate vice chancellor for operations, the sirens should have been clearly audible.
“It was a typical tornado warning siren, which revs up and then continues at a steady pace for a couple of minutes,” Hoffner said. “To the best of our knowledge, they did go off, but we`ll have an opportunity to check live Monday morning.”
The University will test its sirens on Monday at approximately 12:05 p.m.
Sophomore Abby Traub was on the fourth floor of Nemerov when she saw weather warnings on TV. She didn`t hear the sirens either.
“I didn`t hear any sirens, so I assumed it wasn`t actually a tornado,” Traub said. “I didn`t hear anything.”
The University relies on the sirens, which are controlled by the county`s emergency alert system, instead of its own WUSTLAlerts system. According to Bagby, WUSTLAlerts has only been used once since it was created in 2007—for the University closing this past January.
“The WUSTLAlerts system is a University-wide alert system for life-threatening emergencies or emergencies that we need to get information to people very, very quickly—for example, a gunman on campus or a hazardous materials threat,” Bagby said. “For severe weather, we rely on our outdoor warning sirens.”
According to Bagby, damage from the storm was minimal, and no locations on campus lost power.
WUSTLAlerts is being tested on March 9 to ensure that the system works and those students are familiar with it. The University`s warning sirens will be tested on March 7, the first Monday of the month.
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