New Outdoor Warning Sirens to be Tested Thursday

The Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency announces that it will be testing three new outdoor warning sirens on Thursday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

HI-EMA says that the sirens are located at King’s Landing, Leilani Estates, and Hawaiian Beaches #2.

The installation of these sirens come under the early stages of the state’s four-phase siren modernization and renovation project, which, according to Hawai`i County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira, is designed to address coverage gaps and outdated technology to better serve each community.

“We’re in the first projects in phase one and two, and that is to put new sirens in areas that had gaps, as well as to upgrade existing sirens” Oliveira said.

All of the sirens were installed in the last month. The siren installations in Leilani Estates and Hawaiian Beaches were done to replace older sirens.

Oliveira hopes that the Leilani Estates siren will be able to serve a greater purpose than to just warn people of a potential tsunami warning.

“The reason why Leilani Estates has been moved up to Priority One was based on that we’d like to evolve to where we can use that siren in the event of a PGV (Puna Geothermal Venture) release,” said Oliveira. “We’d like to provide the community there with some form of a warning system that could be activated for an emergency if there was a significant release.”

King’s Landing previously did not have a siren installed in the area. According to Oliveira, more sirens will be popping up soon in Waikoloa.

“There’s two new sirens going down in the Waikoloa resort area down by Anaeho`omalu (Bay),” Oliveira explained.

HI-EMA says that residents can expect to hear the siren in their area sound between six to eight times during 30-second to one-minute intervals. People may also hear checks of the siren’s public address system, as well as other blasts, tones, or “burps.”

The public is reminded that in the case of an emergency, an activated warning siren will be accompanied by a radio message from the Emergency Alert System.

The regularly scheduled statewide siren warning system test will be conducted Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. Sirens around the island and state will sound for a steady 60-second tone, and will be accompanied by an EAS audio broadcast.