You may not hear the emergency sirens going off every Wednesday morning anymore.
That’s because Linn County Emergency Management is now responsible for running the tests of those sirens, and they only test once per month.
Jake Buster, assistant fire chief and emergency management association director, said that the City of Mount Vernon and Linn County EMA have been working on upgrading the components of the current outdoor warning systems so Linn County can run the sirens.
“This is greatly beneficial to our town from a cost standpoint as Linn County EMA will now maintain the sirens for us and we maintain ownership of the equipment,” Buster said. “It is also greatly impactful as this allows our first responders to focus on calls for service and coordinate, rather than control, the siren system with Linn County EMA, giving us more manpower in the event of an emergency.”
Buster said the most noticeable change for citizens is there is no longer a weekly audible test of the sirens, but one monthly test the first Wednesday of every month at roughly 8:45 a.m.
As well, people can sign up for notifications on the Linn County EMA Facebook page for the scheduled alerts and Linn Alerts on the Linn County EMA website.
“If you hear the outdoor warning sirens, you should immediately head to your basement or if you don’t have a basement, an interior hallway away from windows,” Buster said. “The outdoor warning systems are in place to warn people outdoors of immediate danger and they should seek shelter. Do not go outside to try and hear the sirens better.”