Bring Back The Air Raid Sirens In The U.S.

Above, an air raid siren in the San Fernando Valley in 2017. Photo by Armand Vaquer

My viewing of The Atomic Cafe movie today and an opinion piece got me thinking about air raid sirens.

It isn't known to me if the authors of an opinion piece in the April 1 New York Times was quackery or an April Fool's joke, but it is something to think about.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made (what the authors say) an "implicit threat" of using nuclear weapons over Ukraine when his invasion started. 

Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson began with:

The Biden administration has done an admirable job checking Russian disinformation efforts by disclosing U.S. intelligence assessments of Moscow’s intentions and marshaling unified political support for Ukrainian sovereignty and indirect military support for its defense.

But the administration has spoken out when it might have kept silent about Russia’s implicit threat to use nuclear weapons. In President Vladimir Putin’s speech announcing the invasion, he stated that anyone who “tries to stand in our way” will face consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history.” He ordered his defense minister to put Russia’s nuclear forces on alert. It may have been implicit, but the threat was clear.

Air raid sirens were installed in U.S. cities during World War II and were used during the Cold War. Monthly tests of them (at least in Los Angeles) were made on the last Friday of the month at 10:00 in the morning. The tests ended in 1985. 

Some sirens have been deactivated and some are still in use (for tornadoes, etc.). They vary by state.

In view of Putin's nuclear threat, perhaps it's time to restore and reactivate the sirens in areas where they were deactivated, just in case? 

Don't forget, DUCK AND COVER!

Black Eye for Hawaii and Its Governor

Above, the Hawaii Capitol building from our tour bus. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Liberal buffoons like Keith Olbermann and actress Jaime Lee Curtis tried to blame President Trump for the ballistic missile alert false alarm and response that took place in Hawaii, but the blame rests with the Democrats who run the state.

The blame for the poor response is being placed by none other than the New York Times.

They wrote:

The false alarm about an incoming ballistic missile that sent Hawaii into a panic this weekend threatened to turn into a major embarrassment for the state and its politically endangered governor, David Y. Ige, as Hawaii officials moved to head off damage to Hawaii’s biggest industry, tourism. 

The Federal Communications Commission said on Sunday that its initial investigation of the mistaken alert had concluded that Hawaii did not have “reasonable safeguards or process controls in place” in its emergency notification process. The alert was sent to cellphones across Hawaii on Saturday morning when a state employee pushed the wrong button in the midst of a shift-change safety drill. It then took 38 minutes for the agency to withdraw the alert. 

The prospect of a battery of investigations by state and federal lawmakers, with public testimony about the timeline of events, suggested that the alert would probably be a dominant subject in Hawaii life for months to come. 

And it quickly emerged as an issue for Mr. Ige, 60, a soft-spoken engineer and a Democrat who is up for re-election this year, and whose leadership style had already been criticized as tepid. He held a news conference five hours after the mistake to apologize, and frequently yielded the microphone to other officials. 

“This is one of the worst things that could happen to an incumbent governor who has already been criticized for his lack of leadership,” said Colin Moore, director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii. “There is no more obvious test of leadership than responding to what happened yesterday.” 

“This story isn’t going to go away,” Mr. Moore said. “It’s going to haunt his re-election campaign all the way to the August primary. Everyone is going to want to talk about their story — that morning when they were terrified, and why it took the governor so long to respond.” 

Mr. Ige issued a statement on Sunday apologizing again for the bungled alert. “I can personally assure each and every resident and visitor that steps have already been taken by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to ensure that a situation of this type never happens again,” he said. 

Across Hawaii on Sunday, people spoke about gathering their families for what they thought would be their last moments, until the “false alarm” announcement went out. 

“Why did it take so long to correct the mistake?” said Jamie Higa, 34, a real estate agent. “Whoever is responsible clearly failed to do his job. The governor isn’t directly responsible for what happened, but he is our top elected official.” 

Representative Colleen Hanabusa, who is challenging Mr. Ige in the Democratic primary in August, repeatedly questioned in an interview why it took so long for the alert to be rescinded. 

“Thirty-eight minutes — and the fear and the anxiety and everything that it caused for the people and for our visitors,” she said. “This is going to have a major consequence for our visitor industry as well. Either people think we are incompetent, or we are not safe.” 

“The governor and his administration did not handle this correctly,” she continued. “You cannot have people driving 100 miles an hour on the freeway and having visitors shelter in place. Immediately, what he should have done is checked and verified whether it is real or not real, and if it was not real, tell people immediately, not 38 minutes later.”

Yes, like California, Hawaii is a beautiful state, and it is also run by inept Democrats.

To read more, go here.

Hawaii Thrown Into Panic: Inbound Ballistic Missile Button Pushed By Mistake

OOPS!

Someone in Hawaii pressed the wrong button during a civil defense test.

The Daily Mail reported:

Anger is spreading in Hawaii after a Civil Defense bungle on Saturday morning, when a mistaken alert warning of an inbound ballistic missile sent thousands fleeing for shelter. 

The false alarm was caused by a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee who 'pushed the wrong buttons' during an internal drill timed to coincide with a shift handover at 8.07am. The all-clear phone alert was not sent until 38 minutes later. 

Incredibly, officials said the employee who made the mistake wasn't aware of it until mobile phones in the command center began displaying the alert.

To read more, go here.

Air Raid Over Los Angeles!

Above, an old air raid siren on Oxnard St. at Sepulveda Blvd. in Van Nuys. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

If you were born before the 1980s, you may remember a wail that took place at 10:00 in the morning on the last Friday of the month. Those were the monthly tests of air raid sirens during World Ward II and the Cold War.

There were 200 or so air raid sirens sprinkled throughout Los Angeles County. Many of them have been torn down already. The last test of the air raid sirens took place in 1985.

Here's an audio of such a test:



According to a 2007 article in the Los Angles Times:

With the frightening wail of air-raid sirens, routine duck-and-cover drills and fallout shelters, the government prepared Americans for Japanese bombs during World War II and nuclear attacks during the Cold War. 

Never particularly reliable, the countywide system deteriorated decades ago. It was disconnected in 1985 and unstable sirens were removed. But at one time the system was state-of-the-art. 

During World War II, hundreds of trumpet- and rocket-shaped air-raid sirens were installed atop traffic signals and buildings across Los Angeles County as part of the civil defense effort. Even then, the system short-circuited routinely, triggering false alarms and panicking residents. 

The sirens were switched off after the war but were updated and reactivated in the 1950s because of the Cold War. On the last Friday of each month, the Sheriff's Department tested the system, sirens wailing for two minutes at 10 a.m.

Above, another view of the air raid siren in Van Nuys. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

What caused me to post this blog was as I was returning home from the Van Nuys division of the Los Angeles Police Department after picking up my Ruger rifle, I was stopped at a signal on Oxnard Street at Sepulveda Blvd. in Van Nuys when I spotted an old air raid siren.

I decided to pull over and take some photos of it. It is a relic that will likely be gone in a few years. Actually, I miss hearing the tests.

To read the rest of the Los Angeles Times article, go here.