Another Test for Longview’s Emergency Sirens

LONGVIEW – Longview’s emergency sirens are now all working again. All 20 of the city’s emergency warning sirens sounded and rotated during Wednesday’s test of the system. However, a timing issue was identified which will be addressed as soon as possible. During the test, the sirens sounded for five minutes as scheduled, but only rotated for three minutes. It is believed that this was due to a setting within the electronic equipment. These settings will be examined and adjustments will be made as soon as possible. A follow-up test will occur next Wednesday, June 21 at noon, weather permitting, to confirm that the settings have been adjusted correctly.

Fire Chief J.P. Steelman said, “We appreciate the community’s patience as we have been working diligently to repair the equipment that was damaged during the storm. We still have a few minor tweaks to adjust some timing issues, but we are confident that the system is working properly and would be available if there were a storm event. However, we still encourage everyone to also sign up for our free CodeRed service at LongviewTexas.gov/CodeRed so that emergency messages can be delivered directly to your phone.”

On May 31st, the sirens were tested because some said they did not hear them on May 28th when they were activated after the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for southeastern Gregg County. During the May 31st test, all twenty of the city’s strategically located sirens sounded. But three of the twenty sirens did not rotate fully. Last week, 12 of the city’s 20 sirens did not work properly. And, besides the sirens, storm-damaged electronic equipment at the Public Safety Communications Center was either repaired or replaced late last week. The equipment was damaged by an EF1 tornado that hit Longview on May 28th.