Somerville's blue-light special
By adamg - 12/30/07 - 9:00 pm
Somerville has installed blue lights at intersections at the city's borders, to flash whenever the city has declared a snow emergency.
What color lights are they using to signal the city is under attack by zombies?
Comments
Next step
Get people to understand what the blue lights actually mean.
Some cities have spent large sums of money trying to inform people what their citywide emergency sirens are intended to communicate - with little success.
In one instance:
Steady Blast = Tornado
High-Low Cycle = Extremely Serious Citywide Emergency, turn on the radio or TV for more info.
The public's response? "It's all too confusing."
This Is Not A Test
Immediately wrap yourself in plastic and duct tape, grab your non-perishable rations, make french toast for the road, and get in your car.
You must then attempt to leave town by following the "Evacuation Route" signs. These line the roads prone to horrific traffic jams on a routine basis.
A New Jersey story
I was visiting a friend in Jersey when all of a sudden, the air-raid siren went off. I freaked, but he said, "Oh, that's just the way they summon the volunteer fire department." I thought, great, if there's an actual emergency that means the fire dept. will be the first ones outside and killed.
VFD Sirens
I remember that in a small town I lived in once, the sirens were used not just to summon the volunteer fire department, but to tell them what part of town the fire was in. The sequence of blasts, like Morse Code, told you the neighborhood. I don't think there was anybody in town who didn't know exactly what they meant. When it blasted, you'd stop and listen for a minute and say, "Oh, it's over by the High School," or some such. The good part was when you could know by listening that it wasn't your own neighborhood.
New Jersey
Where I grew up in NJ in the 1970s and early 80s, the air-raid sirens were used to summon the local VFD, and also to announce school closings due to snow.
I can't imagine that pagers and cell phones haven't replaced the air raid sirens for the purposes of calling out the VFD by this point. Even back then a lot of the VFD guys had scanners and would listen for radio calls.
They have these lights in
They have these lights in Everett also (and they have started flashing in anticipation of Monday's snow). They've installed them on Emergency Arteries so it's a nice reminder of which streets you aren't supposed to park on during snow emergencies.
Winthrop, too...
These blue lights were installed on main arteries around Winthrop earlier in the spring. Underneath is a small metal sign indicating the light's purpose. Seems a little redundant when Winthrop has a manditory snow emergency rule, regardless of anticipated accumulation. But, given the snow this year they're being put to good use.