While we were on vacation this week, near Lake Anna, we experienced a test of the Nuclear Emergency Preparedness system. There's a nuke plant, that provides a decent sized chunk of the power consumption for the southern half of the Washington DC area there.
I honestly can't explain what that it feels like, being on a beach enjoying the day when the nuke sirens start up. It was a bit like being in one of those 1980's cold-war disaster movies. And as surreal as that was, I promise it was for the best. Obviously it's for the best that they test them, but also that we were in public when they went off.
My small scientific replica is nervous about things like alarms and emergency signals. And vehicles, and...lets just say there's a family history of nervousness I had a fairly good indication was coming before he was born. We deal, generally positively and without a lot of drama.
There were probably sixty or so people on that beach with us, and other than the initial jump, none of them cared about the siren. The beach isn't much of a tourist area, it was at Lake Anna State Park, which I seriously recommend, if you ever happen to be in the area (I have literally no clue why you would be). So being surrounded by locals meant the parental units stayed calm about the insanely loud, jarring, faintly terrifying siren when it started. Being calm yourself makes it much easier to keep small people-like things calm too.
Apparently this is a test they do the third Wednesday of every month at 12pm. Another good thing to know, if you're ever in the area. If the sirens go off times other than that, as my dear-husband and I said on the day, don't get your shit, just get out.
Fun bit of trivia? I found this newspaper article that talks about a series of false alarms this particular system had, back in the 1980's. Apparently, once in a while, they just went off. Hehe. Cause that's totally not a problem, taking the time to call the radio station to see if you should be evacuating away from the nuclear power plant...
I honestly can't explain what that it feels like, being on a beach enjoying the day when the nuke sirens start up. It was a bit like being in one of those 1980's cold-war disaster movies. And as surreal as that was, I promise it was for the best. Obviously it's for the best that they test them, but also that we were in public when they went off.
My small scientific replica is nervous about things like alarms and emergency signals. And vehicles, and...lets just say there's a family history of nervousness I had a fairly good indication was coming before he was born. We deal, generally positively and without a lot of drama.
There were probably sixty or so people on that beach with us, and other than the initial jump, none of them cared about the siren. The beach isn't much of a tourist area, it was at Lake Anna State Park, which I seriously recommend, if you ever happen to be in the area (I have literally no clue why you would be). So being surrounded by locals meant the parental units stayed calm about the insanely loud, jarring, faintly terrifying siren when it started. Being calm yourself makes it much easier to keep small people-like things calm too.
Apparently this is a test they do the third Wednesday of every month at 12pm. Another good thing to know, if you're ever in the area. If the sirens go off times other than that, as my dear-husband and I said on the day, don't get your shit, just get out.
Fun bit of trivia? I found this newspaper article that talks about a series of false alarms this particular system had, back in the 1980's. Apparently, once in a while, they just went off. Hehe. Cause that's totally not a problem, taking the time to call the radio station to see if you should be evacuating away from the nuclear power plant...
Quiet by /\ \/\/ /\ on flicr used under CC 2.0
This aren't the exact kind of sirens used at Lake Anna, but I suspect they sound very similar.
Well-Written Wednesday and Sci-Fi Friday will happen over on The Art of Procrastination this week, in deference to the whole just back from vacation thing.
Well-Written Wednesday and Sci-Fi Friday will happen over on The Art of Procrastination this week, in deference to the whole just back from vacation thing.
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