By Staff
Special to The Advance
Natural disasters are not easily predicted, so it’s very important that people take steps to become prepared for an emergency today. One of those steps is learning how you will be notified of protective actions to be taken in an emergency.
Warning the community, in the event of an emergency is one of the key functions of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians’ Emergency Management Department. The timely notification of an approaching threat or danger may help people take life-saving actions and may diminish widespread injuries. The emergency warning system is a crucial element in Poarch Creek’s Emergency Plans.
The Tribe has three sirens that are designed to warn residents within a five mile radius of each siren when a tornado warning has been issued for the immediate area. The sirens are located in Escambia County, Ala. at the following locations: Poarch Police Department, Jack Springs Road; Best Western Motel Atmore, Hwy. 21 and Tullis Manor, Bell Creek Road. The sirens have the capability of emitting several different tones; however officials for the Tribe selected to use only one distinct tone for their sirens, to notify the community of tornado warnings. According to April Sells, Tribal Emergency Management Director, “The reason we chose to utilize only one tone for our Emergency Warning System is because people tend to not be able to distinguish between the different sounds in an emergency. The main objective our community members need to know is that when a siren sounds, and it is not at a regularly scheduled test time they need to be prepared.”
Tribal Emergency Management will be conducting regularly scheduled testing of the Emergency Warning System each week. Tribal dispatch will conduct Quiet Testing, where the sirens will make a quarter turn and cause a slight vibration, and a Live Test where the sirens will make a full cycle, which is three minutes in length, the siren will sound. The Quiet Test will be on Monday, Friday, and Sunday between the hours of 2 p.m. and 10 p.m.
The Live Test will be each Wednesday between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.