Update: Apparently, it was hacking. Here’s the story.
Original: That was one way to bring the city together—the 156 sirens that stretch from the border with Lancaster all the way north of 635, ringing for hours for no apparent reason, all of your friends flocking to Twitter for the quips. Chances are you heard them, and here’s a distribution map showing you why:
Sana Syed, the city’s spokeswoman, said it would take about three hours to get the things shut off. They started sounding around 11 p.m., and the Office of Emergency Management had to turn them off manually. They’re typically tested on the first Wednesday of the month at noon.
It was not the first Wednesday of the month at noon, nor was there a Severe Thunderstorm Warning or a Tornado Warning or inch-plus sized hail or “other emergency situations as deemed by the Office of Emergency Management,” unless you count my friend’s neighbor blaring this as an emergency and I don’t think that’s the case. On the plus side, 911 saw a spike in traffic but the longest anyone had to wait was just two minutes.
Today, at least, it’s quiet.
