The City of Vernon is giving residents a heads up that emergency alert systems will be tested locally and across the province on Wednesday, May 10.
An emergency alert system test takes place across B.C. tomorrow, triggering notifications on television, radio and people’s cell phones. The test is for the Alert Ready emergency alert system.
According to the Alert Ready website, the test will be conducted at 1:55 p.m. PST.
Testing of the system is indented to increase public awareness about the system and spark emergency preparedness conversations so that residents can be ready in the event of an actual emergency.
It is also intended to validate the effectiveness and reliability of the system to ensure it operates as intended.
In conjunction with the Alert Ready test, a new emergency siren that was recently installed in the Predator Ridge area will be audibly tested at the same time. The test will last about three minutes.
People in the Predator Ridge area may hear a wailing sound with a cycle of high and low pitch tones while the testing is taking place. Tomorrow’s use of the siren is only for testing purposes, and no action is required by the public.
The emergency siren is an initiative of the Predator Ridge Community Safety group, who made a request to city council to have the device installed at Fire Station 3, to enhance emergency communications if ever an evacuation was needed due to a wildfire.
The Alert Ready system and emergency siren are being tested in the middle of Emergency Preparedness Week, a national event supported by Public Safety Canada. To learn more about Emergency Preparedness Week, or how to prepare to respond to an emergency, visit getprepared.gc.ca.
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