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Air Raid Sirens

tosca1

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Watching the news that Japan woke up to the sound of air raid sirens when NKorea recently launched a missile....I wondered if we have them in Canada. By the looks of it, only a few are left.


A bit of research and I found out that most were removed by the Department of National Defence (DND) back in the 1970s because they were rusting and becoming eyesores. The Federal Government had no money to maintain them. These sirens had been installed back in the 50s as part of the cold war effort to be prepared for air raids.

Those sirens would give about twenty minutes advanced warning for people to take shelter in case of an enemy attack.

Apparently there are a few left, some web sites show two in Toronto and a few in BC. DND admitted in an interview to the Toronto Star in 2007, that some may have been missed from the inventory. In fact, there was controversy as to who actually owned them. The Star called the City of Toronto, who referred them to the Province, who referred them to DND, who referred them back to the City of Toronto.

There was a time when the sirens made sense and the investment was justified. Times change however, and technology advances require us to constantly revisit the premise upon which we made a decision. In emergency management, much has changed as well. I started my emergency management career by having to pull out the emergency plan once a year, turn to the telephone list, and call everyone to make sure the phone numbers were still valid. Back then a blackberry was a fruit, a cell was a living organism, and a network was a social organization.
https://oaem.ca/tag/air-raid-sirens/


So....how does the government warns the populace if ever an attack occurs, through text?
 
Watching the news that Japan woke up to the sound of air raid sirens when NKorea recently launched a missile....I wondered if we have them in Canada. By the looks of it, only a few are left.



https://oaem.ca/tag/air-raid-sirens/


So....how does the government warns the populace if ever an attack occurs, through text?

In the US we still have them; they are hold overs from the old Civil Defense ( Now FEMA) and cold war era......I suppose they could still be used as air raid / nuclear attack sirens, but they have been used more often by the states as tornado warning sirens.

In addition, we use the Emergency Broadcast System ( EBS) on the television and radios.....they usually test the EBS and sirens once a month....In Minnesota, I think its the first Wed. of every month.
 
We have them in Denmark as well. It use to be a weekly test (Wednesday at noon), but they switched from mechanical ones to digital a decade or more ago, and only test them once a year now.
 
We have them in Denmark as well. It use to be a weekly test (Wednesday at noon), but they switched from mechanical ones to digital a decade or more ago, and only test them once a year now.

Oh, you crazy Danes.....had to go digital and make the rest of the world look old. :cool:
 
Oh, you crazy Danes.....had to go digital and make the rest of the world look old. :cool:

Well if you want digital.. you cant function in Denmark without internet access. We are almost 100% digital now days, so yea the world does look old!
 
In the US we still have them; they are hold overs from the old Civil Defense ( Now FEMA) and cold war era......I suppose they could still be used as air raid / nuclear attack sirens, but they have been used more often by the states as tornado warning sirens.

In addition, we use the Emergency Broadcast System ( EBS) on the television and radios.....they usually test the EBS and sirens once a month....In Minnesota, I think its the first Wed. of every month.

I saw an emergency broadcast system being tested here.....but that's good only if the tv's on.
And if people are awake.
 
We have them in Denmark as well. It use to be a weekly test (Wednesday at noon), but they switched from mechanical ones to digital a decade or more ago, and only test them once a year now.

If the system got hacked......would digital still work?
 
I'm not thinking of only NKorea.

Should ISIS or Al-Quaeda get their hands on missiles like that....they're most likely to launch it at a time when most people are less likely to be prepared. Like, when people are asleep.
If their purpose is to take out as many as they can, they'll most likely hack into the system first, to prevent any warnings to the people.


And, looks like no officials really know the score about the old air raid sirens.

The Star called the City of Toronto, who referred them to the Province, who referred them to DND, who referred them back to the City of Toronto.
https://oaem.ca/tag/air-raid-sirens/
 
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Watching the news that Japan woke up to the sound of air raid sirens when NKorea recently launched a missile....I wondered if we have them in Canada. By the looks of it, only a few are left.



https://oaem.ca/tag/air-raid-sirens/


So....how does the government warns the populace if ever an attack occurs, through text?

Ah nostalgia! Childhood memories! There was a time when I heard air raid sirens, sometimes many times a day - no need for tests. The rise and fall of the alarm and then, later, the long flat continuous welcome note of the 'All Clear'.
 
we have tornado warning sirens which could double as air raid sirens in most populated places in my state. not sure if every state has that, but i'd guess that most do. as for tornado sirens up in Canada, i'm not sure if those are a thing. i got curious, and found this map of every tornado in Canada since 1792.

canada_tornadoes.jpg
 
Not sure what good air raid sirens would do these days beyond giving people a few minutes to pray or say their final goodbyes. Anyone stupid enough to launch an intercontinental missile attack at another country would probably only launch a nuclear bomb. Anything less would just be courting massive retaliation.
 
I would imagine nowadays it would be through text.

Decades ago the smaller towns and cities in upstate NY(and I'm sure in other states too) they had 1 or 2 sirens that went off to call volunteer fireman to the firehouse when there was a fire. Those sirens doubled as air raid sirens.

But nowadays? I have no idea if they still use sirens for the volunteer firemen or if they use text now.
 
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Watching the news that Japan woke up to the sound of air raid sirens when NKorea recently launched a missile....I wondered if we have them in Canada. By the looks of it, only a few are left.



https://oaem.ca/tag/air-raid-sirens/


So....how does the government warns the populace if ever an attack occurs, through text?

An msg to the phone seems cool. But do you still know how to duck and cover?
 
An msg to the phone seems cool.

If you're asleep, will you be alerted? Or, not everyone has a working phone.....there's also hackings.

I think, having a mechanical back-up system is a must.
 
An msg to the phone seems cool. But do you still know how to duck and cover?


I think you just dated yourself....:2razz:

Sadly, I still remember those old school training films.
 
The article given in the OP also states that using the air raid system for tornado warnings isn't really a good idea. Not all tornadoes materialize. It's like the "boy who cried wolf," that people wouldn't be taking it really seriously when they hear it.
 
The article given in the OP also states that using the air raid system for tornado warnings isn't really a good idea. Not all tornadoes materialize. It's like the "boy who cried wolf," that people wouldn't be taking it really seriously when they hear it.

People in tornado prone areas take those sirens very seriously......they usually only have a few minutes to react.
 
Watching the news that Japan woke up to the sound of air raid sirens when NKorea recently launched a missile....I wondered if we have them in Canada. By the looks of it, only a few are left.



https://oaem.ca/tag/air-raid-sirens/


So....how does the government warns the populace if ever an attack occurs, through text?


Most towns and cities down here have robocalls that they send out or we have tornado sirens down here
 
In the US we still have them; they are hold overs from the old Civil Defense ( Now FEMA) and cold war era......I suppose they could still be used as air raid / nuclear attack sirens, but they have been used more often by the states as tornado warning sirens.

In addition, we use the Emergency Broadcast System ( EBS) on the television and radios.....they usually test the EBS and sirens once a month....In Minnesota, I think its the first Wed. of every month.

I believe the US sirens date back to WW II. My dad was a block captain or something like that. When they sounded off in Denver, the kids hid under the desks and people like my dad went somewhere to get ready.
 
The article given in the OP also states that using the air raid system for tornado warnings isn't really a good idea. Not all tornadoes materialize. It's like the "boy who cried wolf," that people wouldn't be taking it really seriously when they hear it.


Here in tornado alley we take storm sirens very seriously which are sounded anytime a rotation is seen on radar or a rotation/tornado is seen by those on the ground. It is not unusual for us to have several warnings per year and a person may think that people would become complacent but when ones lives are at risk people tend not to take a chance. Our storm sirens are tested monthly.

During the cold war they doubled as an air raid warning (different pitch/pattern) but I have not heard an air raid warning test in 30 years and I doubt most people today would know the difference however Im not sure it would matter, people know the sirens mean "take cover".
 
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