By Rex Bowman
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech’s sirens-and-loudspeakers warning system did not work as planned during a test yesterday, with one announcement saying it was a real emergency.
While one voice blared at students and faculty and told them the announcement was a test, another audio message told them to seek shelter because it was not a drill.
“This is why you do tests,” Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said.
Tech began installing the six sirens last year, and they were used April 16, when a student gunman killed 32 people and himself in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history.
Owczarski said yesterday’s test began at 10 a.m. when the sirens sounded. A campus police officer’s voice was then supposed to announce that the sirens were a test. But simultaneously or perhaps even a little earlier, a prerecorded message began playing that advised students, faculty and administrators to seek shelter, Owczarski said.
He added that after the glitch, a police officer hurriedly used the loudspeakers to tell the community that the sirens and announcements were a test.
He noted that the community had received notice of the test last week, and the confused messages did not seem to cause consternation or panic on campus.
“Unfortunately, we had a little gremlin in the system,” Owczarski said, “but essentially the system worked.”
Tech’s emergency-alert test came several weeks after similar tests at Virginia Commonwealth University and the College of William and Mary produced less-than-perfect results.
A test of VCU’s two sirens Sept. 19 left some at the school saying the sirens weren’t loud enough. And at William and Mary on Sept. 24, the sirens didn’t go off as anticipated when officials activated a campuswide alert system.
Later this week, Tech plans to test its revamped online and phone notification system. The system, called VT Alerts, uses phone calls, text messages, e-mails and instant messages to notify the community of emergencies.
Since July, about 18,000 of Tech’s 32,000 students, teachers and staff members have signed up to receive the alerts.
The system, which will cost Tech about $200,000, was in the works before Seung-Hui Cho’s rampage.
Owczarski said the system will be tested between today and Friday.
Copyright 2007 Richmond Times-Dispatch