City of Boulder to start monthly siren testing for flood season on Monday

BOULDER, Colo. - The City of Boulder will begin its seasonal testing of emergency sirens, located in areas with significant flood risk, on Monday, April 6 at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

The sounding of the sirens, which includes both an alarm and a voiced announcement, will occur each month twice a day on the first Monday of the month from April through August. This is consistent with the practice the city has used for years.

Sirens have traditionally been used in the city to signify immediate flood danger. They are also available as a resource in other emergencies, like wildfires, severe weather and hazardous material incidents.

This is a good time to familiarize yourself with Boulder's flood risk and prepare in the event of an emergency. The city's flood preparedness webpageincludes readiness tips specific to flooding. The city's emergency preparedness guide pageis another great resource for more general information. The shared city-county Office of Disaster Management also has helpful preparedness information, including offerings in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian.

The most important step you can take now is to make sure you are signed up for emergency alerts at bocoalert.org. You can choose locations that you are interested in, as well as contact methods, to ensure that emergency responders can get urgent alerts to you, including advisories, warnings and orders, in life-safety emergencies. These will come to you from the city and county dispatch center.

You can also sign up to receive additional information and helpful incident-specific updates by phone for larger scale emergencies that result in the activation of the Emergency Operations Center. To sign up for these, text BOCOINFO to 888777. Please note that you only need to sign up once, unless you change your phone number.

If you or loved ones wish to receive emergency alerts and incident-specific updates in a language other than English, please download the Reachwell app on your phone. You will have an option to select the language that works best for you. It is important that you select two separate categories - BOCOalert and BOCOinfo - to ensure you receive all messages during an emergency. The city also encourages you to turn on audible notifications within the app so you will be made aware when new messages are available.

-CITY-