City conducting siren maintenance (updated)

Benna Sayyed

Don’t panic. It’s just a test.

The Clovis/Curry County Office of Emergency Management will activate the city’s tornado warning sirens today to test a new siren at one of the city’s fire stations.

The test is part of the installation process at Clovis’ fire station three at the corner of Cesar Chavez Drive and Martin Luther King Boulevard, and citizens have no reason to be alarmed, according to Ken De Los Santos, emergency management director for the Clovis/Curry County Office of Emergency Management.

All of the city’s sirens are connected through the same system and therefore will be triggered at the same time, he said.

Test times will last a couple of minutes. During an actual emergency, the sirens continue throughout the warning period. The sirens have various decibel settings and are designed to reach a mile radius. There are 10 in place around the city.

“I think the emergency sirens have proved their value in the past,” Clovis Fire Chief, Ray Westerman said.

“During the tornado we had in 2007, we activated the sirens and they were helpful. This is the only audible notification system we’ve got in Clovis,” he said.

Westerman advises the public to be aware sirens are tested every Wednesday at 4 p.m.