NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Emergency alert sirens will be tested weekly in Mora and San Miguel counties starting Wednesday, June 12. The New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) said that they will conduct the tests at noon every Wednesday.
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The tests are expected to last less than one minute. Officials said they are doing the tests after residents expressed concerns about the reliability of the sirens.
Emergency sirens have been placed on county property and are maintained by DHSEM. In the event of severe weather, such as flooding, local entities will have the ability to use sirens to give residents a warning and provide them with time to take action to keep themselves safe. If residents hear the sirens outside of the testing window, they should use the following tips:
Avoid travel, if possible.
Stay inside.
In the event of flooding, get to higher ground.
Turn around, don’t drown. Never enter flood waters in a vehicle or on foot.
“We didn’t want to re-victimize this community,” said Ali Rye, Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Programs for DHSEM.
“Unfortunately, this burn scar is estimated to have cascading impacts anywhere from 10 to 15 years,” said Ali Rye, Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Programs for DHSEM.
“Groups of individuals stood up and said you know we have a siren that is in our community, but we’ve never heard it go off.” said Ali Rye, Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Programs for DHSEM.
Previously, state and county officials had only conducted silent tests. They worried that any loud testing would retraumatize the community.
“They are the ones who are on the ground, they see the weather coming, they see how it impacts their community, we didn’t want to be the ones who make that determination out of Santa Fe, in the event that we’re setting off that alarm may be too soon or too frequently,” said Ali Rye, Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Programs for DHSEM.
But since then, neighbors have expressed concern that they won’t know what to listen for in an actual emergency.
The sirens have been installed since August 2022. At the end of monsoon season, Homeland Security plans to hold community focus groups over how effective the sirens were and if they can be heard everywhere they need to be.
