JACKSON, Wyo. — Teton County Emergency Management announced that it will be testing outdoor warning sirens on Wednesday, Nov. 6, in preparation of future emergencies.
The outdoor warning sirens could be activated for severe weather, hazardous materials incidents, wildfire evacuations and more, Teton County said in the announcement.
“Most people associate outdoor warning sirens with tornadoes,” Teton County Emergency Management Coordinator Rich Ochs said via press release. “Our sirens are for all hazards and hearing a three-minute siren wail means that you should tune to local radio, All-Hazards Weather Radio, trusted online local media or your phone for an alert to find out what is going on. Sirens are part of our comprehensive public alerting system.”
According to Teton County, emergency management personnel will visit siren locations in Teton Village, Teton Pines, Owen Bircher Park, downtown Jackson, Gregory Lane, Adams Canyon and Hoback Junction to test the sirens to ensure they are operational. For those living in these areas, a few short bursts from the sirens might be heard for approximately one minute at a time on testing day, Teton County said in the announcement. An interactive map of outdoor warning siren locations, along with estimated audible distances is available here.
“The audible ranges are models, and don’t exactly reflect what is heard on the
ground,” Ochs said. “Audibility of the sirens depends on terrain, atmospheric conditions and whether an individual is indoors or outdoors during siren activation.”
The sirens are not designed to penetrate building interiors, so residents should not expect to hear a siren clearly from indoors.
Teton County Emergency Management is asking for the public’s assistance on Wednesday by completing a survey to see if the sirens were heard. This data provides Emergency Management staff with real-world data to help better understand the audible range of the sirens, according to Teton County. The survey will be available here on Wednesday.
Teton County Emergency Management can also issue text and email alerts to subscribers with its Teton_WY Alerts powered by Everbridge notification system.
