WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) - Officials are installing outdoor warning sirens across Williams County and urging residents to sign up for phone- and computer-based alerts.
Forty-three sirens are being installed across 2,250 square miles in the oil patch county to alert people who are outdoors - including oil field workers - to dangerous situations such as weather, wildfires and chemical spills, according to Emergency Manager Mike Smith.
“We’ll put them where most people would be in an outdoor setting - at their homes doing yard work, at the park, baseball fields, football fields,” he told KXMC-TV. “Maybe they’re not paying attention to the weather and this gives them an idea of what’s going on.”
Temporary and permanent residents also can sign up for alerts through email, text message, telephone and an app for smartphones.
“I thought we needed something more than the outdoor sirens,” Smith told the Williston Herald.
Smith has been working to upgrade the county’s alert system since he took the emergency manager job last summer. The project is now nearly complete, with about two-thirds of the 43 sirens in place and the rest set to be installed over the next few weeks.
The sirens cover Williston as well as smaller communities including Trenton, Epping, Grenora, Alamo, Wildrose and Ray.
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