Repaired Surry Power Station Siren To Be Tested

Virginia Department of Emergency Management
10501 Trade Court, Richmond, VA 23236

CONTACT: Bob Spieldenner (804) 897-6510
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Sept. 20, 2006

Repaired Surry Power Station Siren To Be Tested

RICHMOND, VA -- State and local officials will test one of the early warning sirens around the Surry Power Station on Friday, Sept. 22, at approximately 10 a.m. The siren is located in Williamsburg on Quarterpath Road, one mile south of Route 60. It will admit a tone lasting approximately 10 seconds during the test.

A problem was found with this specific siren when the entire siren system was tested on Sept. 13. The test on Sept. 22 will ensure that the siren is now working properly. The siren is one of 68 located in the counties of Isle of Wight, James City and Surry and in the cities of Newport News and Williamsburg. They are located in a 10-mile radius of the Surry Power Plant.

The siren system alerts the public to tune in to their local radio or television Emergency Alert System station for information. A list of area EAS stations is located in the yellow pages of the phone directory in the affected areas, as well as in the annual Surry Power Station emergency information calendar mailed to households in the region.

Full-scale siren tests consist of a single three-minute activation and are conducted quarterly, on the second Wednesdays of March, June, September and December. The next test of the entire Surry siren system will be Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006.

The alerting system signifying an actual emergency at Surry Power Station consists of four separate, three-minute activations, each separated by a one-minute silent interval. Total elapsed time for actual emergency notification is 15 minutes.

In the Surry area, the EAS radio and television stations are:

Radio:

Television: