I think the message indicated that the escalator at the Grove St PATH was out of order. Or maybe something about track work.

Who's going to pay for the hearing tests for all those kids that were under the pole?

To me the video's audio sounded like a barely understandable message followed by a 1 kHz tone, is that really how it's going to sound?

Video is blocked here but that looks like it is it from the text, thanks Steve.

I just saw it outside my office when getting lunch, I think it was put up today.

Anyone have any idea what purpose it serves? It looks like large two megaphones pointed in each cardinal direction on top of a large metal pole. It is in the middle of Washington blvd between the PATH and the light rail.

Do they need to blast for the new PATH station entrance or something?

So I heard a siren yesterday at 12:02 PM (June 3)...it went on for 3 minutes. Then about 10 minutes later I heard a different siren.
I said "gee I wonder what that was?"


Had it been a real emergency I'd have said: "Gee, I wonder what that was?"
(Are we still supposed to "duck and cover?" Or has that been superceded by "put on your gas mask?" Or will duct taping the windows suffice? Or are their civil defense bomb shelters still around somewhere? Or do we drink potassium iodide? Or get to a high place to avoid the tsunami? Or just bend over and kiss our asses goodbye?)

The moral: If you don"t know WHAT emergency, there is no point to a warning except to scare people.

I wonder who pocketed the bulk of the $750 G's in this moronic extravaganza?

SIRENS LOUD ENOUGH?
2nd round of tests will continue in county today

Thursday, June 04, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Emergency alert sirens blasted across Jersey City, North Hudson and Hoboken yesterday as tests continued to calibrate the volume of speakers erected at locations across the county to notify residents in the event of a disaster. The testing continues today in other parts of the county.

"That thing is loud," said Marie Demartini, who lives across the street from a set of speakers at Kennedy Boulevard and Graham Street in the Jersey City Heights.

"A lady asked me what was going on and I said 'It's just an alert system. Remember 9/11?' She said she didn't like it, but I said, 'If it's for your well being, then it's good.'"

Across the Boulevard, children at School 27 were outside on a fire drill at noon and many of them covered their ears as they stood on the sidewalk when the siren blasted. But a security guard at the school said the siren could hardly be heard in the basement.

The 31 sets of speakers mounted on 55-foot poles broadcast at 120 to 123 decibels and they should be heard everywhere at 70 decibels or above, officials said.

They were first tested countywide on May 15, but they weren't loud enough, said Hudson County Office of Emergency Management Planner Gerry Drasheff.

"Today, I don't think there were any sections where it couldn't be heard, but whether it got up to 70 decibels is the question," said Drasheff, whose office was reviewing data from sound sensors last night.

Drasheff said the speakers can't be turned up much more because it would be dangerous for people close to them. If sufficient coverage is not achieved, the direction of the speakers can be changed or more could be erected, he said.

The system can also broadcast a live voice and there was an announcement that the test was over. Eventually the county is going to combine the speaker system with an AM radio broadcast station controlled by the county.

Residents will be instructed to tune in to the station in the event of a disaster and will receive information and directions broadcast in multiple languages. The sound broadcast from the speakers does not carry as well as the siren sound.

At Noon, Friday I was within 2 blocks of Jersey City City Hall...I heard NOTHING or else nothing that distracted me from a quiet conversation on the street.

Some test!

Quote:

"Buildings are definitely a problem in an urban environment," said Burns. "If the city of Hoboken were farmland, there would have been no impediments and the sound would have gone on forever."

Quote:

In county emergency sirens drill, the noise isn't loud enough

by Carly Baldwin/The Jersey Journal
Friday May 15, 2009, 8:52 PM

Bayonne city spokesman Joseph Ryan looked at it with a bit of logic: "That's why they call it a 'test.'"

He was referring to today's drill by the county Office of Emergency Management, which didn't turn out as planned.

The OEM tested the 28 emergency sirens throughout the county, but from Bayonne to North Bergen, the reviews were the same -- the sirens were not loud enough.

"The siren was audible at City Hall (on 29th Street), but a few blocks away you could not hear it," Ryan said. "One of the assistant fire chiefs was at Midtown Community School on 23rd Street, and he couldn't hear it."

The sirens were installed to alert residents in case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster and were placed at mass transit hubs and commercial centers in every municipality in the county. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. yesterday the sirens were tested periodically.

The sirens, which sound like loud horns blaring, were designed to reach 70 decibels.

"We were unhappy with the sound. We think the tall, five-story buildings may have blocked it somewhat," Jack Burns, coordinator for Hudson County Emergency Management, said of Hoboken.

"There's a concern the sound will not travel far enough -- there are areas where we weren't getting the decibel levels that we hoped for."

Burns said he wasn't sure what solutions will be tried, either installing more sirens or making the existing ones louder.

A total of 31 sirens have been erected in Hudson County, but three of them are not functioning yet.

There are eight sirens in Jersey City, four in Bayonne and one in Hoboken, by the downtown PATH station, and one in Weehawken, by the New York Waterway ferry terminal, as well as elsewhere throughout northern Hudson and Secaucus.

They were funded with a $795,000 Homeland Security grant from 2006.

The sirens will alert residents to tune to a yet-to-be-determined AM radio station for further directions.

"We wanted to alert the populace in as quick a fashion as we can, in case of a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or even something smaller, like if a chemical truck flipped over," said Burns.

I was in Bayonne today and the siren was very quiet. It also resembled a fire truck siren - it really wasn't a distinctive sound rising above the noise of the city designed to catch your attention. If I didn't know there was testing today, I wouldn't have even paid attention to it.

A pirate walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a beer so the bartender gives him a beer and notices a tiny steering wheel on the pirates groin.

So he asks the pirate "why is there a steering wheel on your privates?"

And the pirate say "arhh its driving me nuts."

I'm at the waterfront and they have been going off all day-it's driving me nuts!

hmmm... I'm uptown. Maybe the thing didn't work.

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Nope, not heard a thing all day downtown.

What's scary is, I didn't hear a dog gone thing all day, even after all these warnings.

Was the system a flop or is my area just being totally ignored, as usual? Did anyone hear anything today?

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not only that but they're taking GPS coordinates of EVERYONE'S front door from may until July, and you can't object although it's illegal to do something like this because it's isn't a census year (2010 is... not 2009.)

we didn't even have raid sirens during wwII, the cold war, or vietnam, never mind iraq... scare tactic? I think so.

On Friday, May 15, 2009, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., the Hudson County Office of Emergency Management will be testing emergency alert sirens throughout the county. We have several locations in Jersey City. Residents may hear a loud siren at one or more times during the day, and should not be alarmed. This is NOT an emergency, but only a test.
For more information, please visit the city website at http://www.jerseycitynj.gov.

Come on really?

$750,000 on sirens? What are sirens going to do?

How about bullhorns at least so you can instruct people?

Lets say there is a "major natural or man-made hazard" sometime soon. You are walking down the street or siting at home and you hear sirens.

You say "ohh, sh*t"

Then what?

I must admit though, if the "fly over" did anything, it at least forced the government to let us know about these things. Today, I got at email at work, from college, on JC1TV, on the JC website (which never gets updated), Jersey Journal. Not half bad.

On Friday, May 15, 2009, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., the Hudson County Office of Emergency Management will be testing emergency alert sirens throughout the county. We have several locations in Jersey City. Residents may hear a loud siren at one or more times during the day, and should not be alarmed. This is NOT an emergency, but only a test. For more information, please visit the city website at www.jerseycitynj.gov.

economic collapse, swine flu, the Air-Force one flyover, the attempt to gain permission for a 2nd flyover (cover-up), a military flyover scheduled for May 20th, Testing of County Wide Alert Notification System, WTC clsing for emergency response drill....am I paranoid or are the stars aligning?

Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise said in a statement. "It is a system that will make us all safer."

Nice! $750,000 emergency funds?

Really, when's the last time I ran into a terrorist from another county?!?

We certainly live terrorized on a daily basis by the likes of Reliable Recycling and PPG. Those are the real terrorists. Perhaps we should adopt a Ward-F Environmental Terror Advisory System.

Borrowing from Tom Ridge's Homeland Security:



And set it Red.

Now hear this! Tomorrow's siren blasts are only a test
Thursday, May 14, 2009
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Residents across the county may hear horns whooping tomorrow. But they shouldn't panic, it's just a test of a new emergency system to guide the public to safety during a real disaster.

The Hudson County Office of Emergency Management will be testing its new $750,000 emergency alert system between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Residents will hear a tone and announcements from solar-powered horns stationed atop 55-foot poles and rooftops from Bayonne to North Bergen.

"No one should be alarmed on May 15 - the sirens sounding that day will ensure that this system is functioning properly," Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise said in a statement. "It is a system that will make us all safer."

"This system is designed to alert local residents and visitors in the event of a major natural or man-made hazard that would require residents to take some sort of action for their individual safety," Bayonne Mayor Mark A. Smith said.

The public notification system will instruct residents which AM station to tune to. Drasheff said the OEM recommends that every family keep a battery-operated AM radio in their home.

Future monthly tests will be conducted using the "silent test," officials said. A total of 31 units systems on poles and rooftops across the county will broadcast tones to every corner of the county and voice messages will be heard in heavily populated areas, commercial centers and public transportation hubs.

The system was paid for with a grant from the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security.

BUMP

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What time is this suposed to be hapening on Friday?

This is good. Thanks for the advanced notice. This would have scared the daylights out of me if i didnt know. Email WOULD NOT work for our senior citizens.

Hmmmm verbal instructions- I imagine they won't be very clear from more than a few hundred feet, at best.


Wonder if they've considered a blast text message/email. I know a few campuses set up systems after the Virginia Tech murders. If I'm not mistaken, the feds are also working on one that would broadcast nationwide.

Would be alot more effective than a bunch of air-horns going off, followed by a loudspeaker.

The AM radio thing is kind of silly- Is someone on the street going to be carrying an AM radio on them when they're away from home? This is a statistic that I'm making up on the spot, but it's accurate regardless- There is a 2983828329% higher probability that the average person you stop on the street has a cell phone on them than an AM, or really any, radio.

What if the power's out, which it could be, under a number of emergency situations?

The voice on a pole is probably going to be telling me what station to tune in to, but I doubt I'll hear anything more than I hear when any of the various Mayoral candidate loudspeakers are driving more than half a block away.

Sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher.

Anyway, it's good to announce this, because otherwise I'm sure there'd be some concern over air raid sirens going off, and for all I know they're going to use some sort of electronic system in the future, but I don't see anything about it on the Hudson County OEM website.

Maybe the loudspeakers work great- My concern is based on current experience with the PATH/subway excellence in fidelity I've come to expect from government work, and that might not be exactly fair.

Still should set up text messages/email. I'd sign up in a second.

Fri, May 15, 9AM - 4PM

There will be a testing of the new County- Wide Alert Notification System, which is designed to alert residents in the event of an emergency.

The plan is for a series of audible tones in 12 Hudson County areas--emitted via 31 alert notification units that have been mounted atop poles and roofs--1 distinct tone for each geographic area, w/ some locations hearing a tone more than once because some parts of, i.e., Secaucus may depend on units located in JC and North Bergen.

The system does allow for live voice instructions following the initial audible tone alerts; verbal instructions are especially important along commercial corridors & in transportation hubs. Plus, in the future, the plan is for residents to be able to tune to an AM channel, as well as receive info via broadcast.

In the months to come there will be ongoing silent testing of this ANS, but next Fri is slated for the audible tone. You need do nothing. This is supposed to be part of planned preparedness testing of a county-wide system, which is a system that can be activated in the event of a national hazard or man-made disaster.

For more information, contact Gerry Drasheff at 201-319-3871.