Plymouth State University completed its highly anticipated test of the emergency siren on Wed. Sept. 17 at noon. The siren is just one component to a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan put forth by the institution.
The siren, which was purchased and erected by the University during the summer, stands on the corner of High street and the pathway that crosses behind the HUB.
While some students expected that the siren would be extremely loud, piercing all campus locations, it was mainly audible at off campus locations.
“From my perspective, the test was definitely a success,” Dean of Students Tim Keefe, said. Keefe set out to gather information directly from students upon the conclusion of the test around campus to get a better understanding of the student’s perspective, “The students I interviewed for my video before and after made them feel safer,” Keefe said
“One group of students prior to the test told me they were heading to the library in hopes that would be one of the quietest locations, which it was,” Keefe added.
Along with the library, the siren’s shriek was muffled in Prospect Dining Hall, which is adjacent to the siren.
“The purpose of the siren was not the penetrate every campus building or wake a student out of a deep sleep, it is to alert those outside to get inside immediately,” Keefe said.
While the sound may have been less than arresting in some on campus buildings, the test was audible in Plymouth and surrounding schools. It was reported that the siren could be heard at Plymouth Regional High School and across the river at The Holderness School. Both locations are within close proximity to the siren.
It could also be heard at locations further from PSU, including the Hannaford Supermarket and the Police Department. Hannaford is within several miles from Rumney, while the police station is within yards of the Campton town line. Confirmation of the siren’s wail was also documented along New Hebron Road, which is located in far southwestern Plymouth, near the town of Groton and Tenney Mountain.
Considering the great distance the siren could be heard, there were no calls to the PSU police department, and only one to the Plymouth Police Department regarding the siren, “Plymouth dispatch got one call, and that was from someone who knew about the test,” Chris Williams, Director of Public Relations said.
On Sept. 18, the day after the test, a debriefing session held to discuss the success of the siren, “We reviewed all aspects of the test,” Williams said, “The test went exactly as planned,” he added.
Through the emergency siren test, PSU administration learned about the current emergency situation preparedness on the PSU campus, “The siren will definitely be used for outside communication,” Williams said.
This is useful, as long as those in the neighboring communities know about the alarm, as well as what to do when the alarm sounds, barring the semi-annual tests. “We learned it reached one or more miles in every direction outdoors,” Williams said.
Along with learning the positive aspects of the emergency siren, PSU officials also learned that more has to be done to alert those in the community, “We will have to focus communications to let people know to get inside,” Williams added.
PSU officials were able to let citizens of the surrounding area know about the siren, which according to Williams, was due to a “Comprehensive effort to let folks know the test was going on all day [on Sept 17]”
PSU was effectively alerted, but students may be cautioned not to use their email account notifications exclusively as a means to find out about potential emergency situations on campus, “The amount of email slowed the system down,” Williams said.
The email notifications took a longer time to get to students due to the shear number that was sent out at one time.
The text alerts functioned as they were supposed to, meaning, students who registered to receive alerts via email regarding campus emergencies were alerted in a timely manner. On the date of the test, nearly 3000 of the 6500 applicable campus population had signed up for the text alert system.
“The national average is thirty percent,” Williams said, ” [After the test] nearly 100 people signed up,” Williams said, adding, “Since the beginning of the school year almost 500 new accounts were created.”
Williams added that an additional 400 students, faculty and staff have signed up for the PSU text message alerts but have not completed the process, “400 people have signed up for accounts but have not actually activated them,” he said.
If the accounts were to be updated, PSU’s system usage would be well above the national average, approaching fifty percent of the applicable population.
The siren was purchased to be used as one alert mechanism in a whole system of campus and town wide emergency preparedness. The siren will be tested again on Wed. Feb. 18.