Winchester chimes will be heard at noon today in Clallam and Jefferson counties during a test of the tsunami siren system.
The North Olympic Peninsula counties will join Grays Harbor and Pacific counties in testing the Washington State All Hazard Alert Broadcast Siren system.
The chimes will be followed by a voice saying the sound was only a test.
In Jefferson County, sirens are at three sites in Port Townsend — the Port Townsend marina, Point Hudson and Fort Worden — and on the Hoh reservation on the West End.
In Clallam County, sirens are at Diamond Point, Dungeness Fire Station, Four Seasons Ranch, Marine Drive in Port Angeles, Lower Elwha Klallam Community Center, Clallam Bay, the Quileute A-Ka-Lat Community Center in LaPush and two sites in Neah Bay.
The sirens will sound a warning as part of a notification system for people outside of buildings and on beaches of coastal communities.
Those who are outside and hear the chimes can use that sound as a cue to look around and identify pathways to higher ground, emergency management personnel say.
Officials also are asking people to use this testing time to “think about one more thing you could do this month to be even better prepared for a natural disaster.”
A similar notification test can be heard inside buildings on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration All Hazard Alert Weather radio at noon Wednesday.
During a real event, both the sirens and NOAA All Hazard Alert Weather radios would sound a warning message.
The testing of the sirens and radio systems is a key component of Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s and Jefferson and Clallam counties’ Tsunami Ready program.
“If the ground shakes enough for you to notice, you are probably experiencing the movement of a local earthquake,” said Jamye Wisecup, program coordinator for the emergency management unit of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
“Remember to drop, cover and hold until the shaking stops,” she added.
“The earthquake itself is the warning system and is the signal to evacuate out of low-lying coastal areas and immediately move to higher ground.”
The Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management urges residents to purchase a NOAA weather radio for use in emergencies.
The department will program the radio for free.
For more information, phone the department at 360-385-9368.
Clallam County residents who want to let officials know where they were when they heard the test can phone Wisecup at 360-417-2525.
For more information, visit www.emd.wa.gov, www.clallam.net/EmergencyManagement or www.jeffcoeoc.org.
