Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
What Do You Do If The Sirens Sound?
wmur.com — Amesbury, Mass. -- About 20 years ago, the Seabrook Station nuclear plant set up dozens of sirens in communities in the area to warn of an emergency...but many residents don't know what they mean. Officials said the siren system is tested, but the tests are silent.
gmarie624- 10 diggs
- digg it
- Ummagumma, on 07/23/2008, -0/+1I grew up in a small town years ago, before cellular phones and what not. Geeze, I'm starting to feel like John McCain here. Anyway, our town had a volunteer fire department, with a fire hall right in the centre of the village. So, when somebody phoned in a fire, the fire chief would rush to the fire hall and fire up this gigantic siren that sat on top of the building. Its wail would bring all the volunteers running from all over... it didn't matter if you lived out in the surrounding community, you'd hear this thing for miles. If you were in town, it would be hard to have a conversation, even inside, while it was on.
I'll never forget the sound, it's literally been like 30 years since I've heard it, but it will always be etched in my memory. The sounds of air raid sirens during the London blitz or even at the beginning of Money City Maniacs by Sloan get close to it. There was the inexorable wind up, the long top register held for what seemed like an eternity, and then the slow drop... only to be repeated again and again until it was determined that whoever had to show up had heard the signal, and then the final wind down slowly, slowly to a few seconds of the most silenty silence you never heard.
It was the sound of doom when I was a kid, and was the featured soundtrack to many a nightmare. Its slow, ominous oscillations always heralding something unseen, dark, but powerfully dangerous.
Of course, this comment is apropos of nothing, but whenever I read something about sirens that fire hall signal always ratchets up in my brain.
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by