They're testing the civil defense sirens right now.

[terrya]

It's sort of an anachronism in the age of Homeland Security and "color coded levels" and such.

[havocmom]

1. you needn't get worried until they shine that spotlight ...

the one with the bat shadow

Seriously, back in the days of US hostages in Iran and a lot of saber rattling, I had a skittish customer in when the sirens went off for their monthly test. There was one within 50 yards of the store. Well, this young woman totally freaked. She was crying, clawing at her face, screaming "oh my god, they are going to kill us; they're attacking! THEY ARE ATTACKING US!" She had a young child with her, who of course, joined in the howling and was terrified at mom's reaction.

Took me over an hour to talk the woman down. We were in Helena, Montana for cryin out loud! Not likely that Iran could muster an invasionary force that would get that far.

Oh, what conditioning and propaganda can do.

Then, along came May 18, 1980 and the ash fall from Mt. Saint Helens DID reach us, posing significant threat to anyone out and about. Did our local civil defense folks notice? Nah, no horns, no sirens, no radio or TV news. I actually sat on my front steps, thinking it was odd that fog was rolling in as I watched the gray cloud come up my street! When my eyes and throat started burning, THEN I got a warning something was askew!

[EstimatedProphet]

2. OMG IT'S NOT A TEST!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! FEAR! PANIC! TERROR! RUN AWAY!

[fit4life]

3. Love those tests.

I always wondered what would happen if we had a giant emergency right at 10:00 on Tuesday morning. Nobody would know!

[tjwmason]

4. You actually have sirens?

I think that the only ones here are in a few places on the coast for flood threats, nothing for civil defence.

I remember how irritating it was when they tested the residence fire-alarms at uni, add in more of the wretched things...

[ThorsHammer]

5. Whatever happened to the color coded levels?

[Carni]

6. In my state I guess those are for weather only!

A few months after 911 one went off at about 1 AM near my house.

Silly me... I thought if there was no tornado that the siren signaled a foreign invasion, or bombing (or something equally dire)

I wasn't too upset about it that night only because I assumed it was more BS from the government but I was annoyed and I emailed my cities so called homeland security dept the next day.

I was told the sirens here are ONLY for weather and that the one I heard had malfunctioned and had gone off in error.

I asked well how would people be notified if there was some kind of an attack?

They told me to tune into my local news station on TV, or radio...
Some great plan, huh?