Sheriff's Office • 100 North Fifth Avenue West • Duluth, MN 55802
Phone: (218) 726-2340 • www.stlouiscountymn.gov
Gordon Ramsay
Sheriff
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: March 6, 2024
Media Contact: Dewey Johnson
Emergency Support Services Administrator
(218) 726-2936
Monthly emergency test erroneously sounded real alarm
People who live in communities with emergency sirens are used to hearing those sirens sound as a test at 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month. However, today's siren test in St. Louis County mistakenly gave the impression of a real emergency.
"During the test, one of our operators inadvertently pressed the warning button rather than the test button," said Dewey Johnson, Emergency Support Services Administrator for the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office. "This caused the wrong alert tone to sound. A lot of people likely aren't aware there's a difference between the test tone and the tone for a real emergency, but for those who do know, this may have caused concern, and for that we apologize."
The sirens sounded primarily in Duluth and Proctor, which have emergency warning systems.
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