Emergency sirens are tested weekly in the counties of Mora and San Miguel

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Starting Wednesday, June 12, Mora and San Miguel counties will begin testing their emergency sirens weekly. The New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) said the tests will be conducted every Wednesday at noon.

The tests are expected to last less than a minute. Authorities said they are conducting the tests after residents raised concerns about the reliability of the sirens.

Emergency sirens have been installed on county property and are maintained by DHSEM. In the event of severe weather such as flooding, local agencies can use sirens to alert residents and give them time to take action to protect themselves. If residents hear the sirens outside of the testing period, they should follow these tips:

• Avoid travel if possible.
• Stay indoors.
• In case of flooding, seek higher ground.
• Turn around, don’t drown. Never drive or walk into flood water.

“We did not want to impose another victim on this community,” said Ali Rye, DHSEM deputy program secretary.

“Unfortunately, this burn scar is expected to have cascading effects within 10 to 15 years,” said Ali Rye, DHSEM deputy program secretary.

“Groups of people stood up and said, ‘You know, we have a siren in our community, but we’ve never heard it,'” said Ali Rye, DHSEM deputy program secretary.

Previously, state and district authorities had only conducted silent tests, fearing that loud tests would re-traumatize the population.

“They’re the ones on the ground, they see the weather coming, they see the impact it’s having on their community. We didn’t want to be the ones making those decisions from Santa Fe in case we sounded that alarm too early or too often,” said Ali Rye, DHSEM’s deputy cabinet secretary for programs.

But since then, neighbors have expressed concern that they would not know what to look out for in the event of an actual emergency.

The sirens have been installed since August 2022. At the end of the monsoon season, the Department of Homeland Security plans to hold focus groups among the community to find out how effective the sirens have been and whether they can be heard everywhere they need to be heard.