In 2007, the University of Texas at Austin installed an outdoor warning system for the main campus area. The siren system is tested once a month and used to alert the campus community to take shelter in case of an emergency. UT’s motivation in creating the system demonstrates the University’s commitment to safety on the Forty Acres.
“One of the things that a lot of people don't realize about Austin is that we are at the bottom end of Tornado Alley,” said the Assistant Vice President for Campus Safety, Jimmy Johnson. Additionally, the City of Austin affirms that Austin also “lies in the heart of Flash Flood Alley.”
Johnson explained that one of the most significant impacts on the university campus is the threat of severe and inclement weather. UT Austin is a campus with a daily population of around 75,000 people and the Forty Acres hosts a plethora of outdoor activities.
“We wanted to put in place some practices to help minimize outdoor risks in 2007,” said Johnson. He was involved in the early part of the activation of the outdoor warning system when he first came to work for the Office of Campus Safety.
Initially, there were four emergency sirens located on top of key buildings around the main campus. The system has since been expanded to also include sirens on the Pickle Campus and the McDonald Observatory. People walking around campus will hear the outdoor warning system in the event of an emergency. Students, faculty and staff will receive a text alert through the University’s emergency text messaging system.
Jonathan Robb, Director of Emergency Management, explained how the outdoor warning system is activated in conjunction with information received by University of Texas Police Department.
“The system is a computer based program that UTPD has access to. Their dispatch center initiates that activation because they're most likely to get an emergency 911 call that correlates with our protocol to activate the siren, or they'll receive a National Weather Service announcement,” said Robb.
One of the Office of Emergency Management’s goals each year is to educate the incoming campus population on how to react when they hear the sirens. Most people who come to campus have never heard an outdoor warning system before, so the first experience with a siren drill may be unsettling.
“The message that the warning system generates can either be computer generated or delivered by a person through a hand microphone,” explained Johnson. “We have found that the computer voice is more intelligible and audible across campus than it is if you pick up and talk into the microphone,” he said.
A recording of what the outdoor warning system sounds like can be found on the Office of Emergency Management website here.
Johnson explained that the educational element is crucial for the University because UT has around a 25% turnover rate in its student population each year.
“We provide information about the outdoor warning system with an emphasis on the Spring semester,” Johnson said. “That's when we have more of the usage of severe and inclement weather based on weather patterns in Central Texas.”
Members of the campus community can expect the warning system to be tested at around 11:50 a.m. on the first Wednesday of every month. The tests last one minute and no action needs to be taken during a test. In the event of a real emergency, the outdoor warning system will relay instructions on how to proceed.
Johnson emphasized that the purpose of the outdoor warning system is to inform campus so that people can have information and then make sound decisions. “It's just one of a multitude of redundant processes that we put in place as a university to try to really make it a safe and secure environment.”
