Email to a Friend | Print Page
News Communication Tools Exercise
As part of Severe Weather Awareness Week, the National Weather Service will conduct the annual Tornado Drill February 8th, 2012. In conjunction with the drill, the Chatham Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) will also test the communication tools that provide critical information to the public during an emergency.Here is a look at what will be tested on February 8th:
• CEMA will sound the Outdoor Emergency Warning Siren System simultaneous with the Statewide Tornado Drill which generally begins at 9am. The siren will sound for three minutes.
• CEMA will test the County's Community Notification System (CNS) by sending out a test call to a select portion of Downtown Savannah residences and businesses. The 30 second message will start off by saying, "Exercise, exercise, exercise, this is a test of the Chatham County Community Notification System, please do not hang up." In the event of a real emergency, the CNS would be used to relay life-saving information to the entire county in a short amount of time.
• CEMA will test the Emergency Alert System as well as the ability to override COMCAST cable stations. You will see and hear a pre-scripted message indicating the test has begun beginning around 9 am.
• Lamar Advertising will display a statewide tornado message on each of its 16 digital billboards throughout the Savannah area. The message will run from 9 am to 9:30 am.
• CEMA will disseminate a test e-mail to citizens who are signed up to receive CEMA Alerts and a mass fax to partners signed up to receive emergency notification through fax.
• CEMA's website, www.ChathamEmergency.org, will be replaced beginning at 9 am with a version that would be the primary source of information during an actual emergency. It will remain up for five minutes.
• CEMA's Twitter and Facebook pages, which serve as additional methods of notification, will be updated as well.
