Is there or has there been an extensive public education program on the meaning of the sirens? Could simply be the citizens are unaware of the meaning of the sirens?
In our area, most rural Fire Departments still blow the house siren routinely at noon and at other times to alert the volunteers to respond to the station or scene of an incident, so hearing one is fairly common and does not require any action by the residents. In some areas, certain siren patterns and/or length of siren may indicate some type of incident that requires the resident to take some action, but I would venture to guess with all of the relocation and growth that occurs, most of the newer residents would have no clue as to what the siren patterns indicated.
Our Fire Departments located within the larger communities no longer blow the house siren, so if it goes off it would be something of which to take notice. However, the effective distance of the sirens would most likely make them almost useless, except in the immediate area of the stations and most residents would likely be clueless as to their meaning. We simply no longer rely upon these sirens for alerting the residents.
Now, where I work at Ft. Detrick, there is a fairly extensive distribution of sirens/public announcement speakers and most workers do know to listen for the siren and any accompanying announcement. Living only a couple of blocks from the front gate, we are able to hear these from our home.
Pete
Well there was a extensive education program and every first Monday of the month they are tested, so people know how they sound like. They are not use for anything else and nothing else sounds like it. They are stand alone sirens, though. So announcements are not made from these sirens, but on the local radio and TV channel.
The people standing outside watching knows what the sirens mean. People have ask them, if they knew what the sirens mend, they do. But knowing what you are suppose to do and actually do the thing you are suppose to do are unfortunately two different things. I guess that most people don't take the sirens serious, because nobody has died or injured from not listen... yet.
Sometimes you can say that people here are to safe and protected, so people are not prepared for disasters at all.
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