Mississippi State University held emergency drills Friday in an attempt to improve the university’s alert system. In addition to the drills, MSU, the City of Starkville and the Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency will be testing emergency sirens today.MSU director of facilities management Jim Jones is also tasked with the position of Crisis Action Team director.
The purpose of the sirens is to indicate any emergency situation in the area, Jones said.
“In this next test we will test two signals: one will be the sounding of the normal monthly continuous test signal, and the other will be a sounding for the warbling signal which will be the sound of a real emergency,” Jones said.
The warbling signal will be tested today only. The next time it sounds, there will be an actual emergency.
The sirens are not only for weather emergencies, but also for any problem in the area that the MSU and Starkville communities should be aware of. Along with weather emergencies, the sirens will be used for fire hazards, bomb threats, shootings or hostage situations.
Jones said there appeared to be confusion during the recent weather emergencies, so the testing of the two signals should help people be able to distinguish when there is a real emergency.
“[President Robert ‘Doc’] Foglesong requested that we develop a different signal for testing as compared with a signal for a real emergency,” Jones said. “We coordinated with the City of Starkville and County Management Authority to develop and test the two different signals.”
When the recent weather emergencies were taking place, many people did not appear to understand that a real emergency was occurring.
Sophomore kinesiology major Kirsten Cole said she was on her way to class during the recent weather emergency and was unaware that an emergency was taking place.
“I live off campus so when I got to class, everyone was worried about the tornadoes around town,” Cole said. “I didn’t get the Maroon Alert text messages until after the bad weather passed, so I think the new emergency siren is a really good idea.”
Along with testing the new emergency signal, the Crisis Action Team is working to ensure a more effective way to alert people of an emergency.
“The long-term fix is going to be nine voice-capable speakers installed around campus,” risk manager Michael Goolsby said.
The emergency sirens are going to help make everyone aware of emergencies in the area and hopefully prevent possible problems in the future, he said.
“I’m glad State is working to make our campus safer,” Cole said. “I feel more comfortable knowing that there is going to be more effective ways of being notified of a possible emergency.”
The Crisis Action Team staged a hostage situation drill on Friday in Herbert Hall.
“The Crisis Action Team is at work, and we are taking this drill very seriously,” said MSU university relations director Maridith Geuder.
Assistant News Editor Lawrence Simmons contributed to this story.