Free Republic

The worst fire disaster in America's last 100 years was made worse when the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) refused to allow access to water to fight the conflagration on Maui Island for more than five hours while the fire leveled the town of Lahaina. M. Kaleo Manuel, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and DLNR's deputy director for water resource, insisted that "a discussion about equity must precede as decision to divert water resources from a previously approved distribution to an unplanned so-called emergency." By the time the water needed was approved for firefighting the blaze had...

Siren fast facts. Hawaiʻi has the largest single integrated Outdoor Siren Warning System for Public Safety in the world. The all-hazard siren system can be used for a variety of both natural and human-caused events; including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more. The sirens output is 121 decibels and propagate with a manufacture radius of 3400ft. This range may vary due to environmental and surrounding physical conditions. The sirens are battery-powered and use a photovoltaic charging system. The sirens are one part of the larger Hawaiʻi Statewide Alert and Warning System...

Emergency Management chief Herman Andaya defended his decision not to set off warning sirens as the deadly wildfire barreled toward Lahaina Andaya said Wednesday Hawaiians are trained to seek higher ground when they hear those sirens, which are usually used for tsunami warnings In the wake of the fire that killed at least 110 people, some are questioning Andaya's fitness for his positionThe man in charge of Maui's Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday he does not regret not activating warning sirens as the fatal wildfire swept across the island.Chief Herman Andaya said he opted to send out alerts via mobile...

Joe Biden made a surprise trip to Kiev, Ukraine on Monday. When he walked with Ukrainian President Zelensky into the courtyard in Kiev the air sirens went off. Biden was hailed as a ‘brave’ president with ‘guts’ to walk in a warzone.

Porn actress Stormy Daniels was arrested at an Ohio strip club and is accused of letting patrons touch her in violation of a state law, her attorney said early Thursday.

Dallas' emergency warning sirens, like many across the country, are radio-controlled and activated via encoded transmitters that act like pagers, sending tones to receivers attached to each siren. In Dallas' case, security experts say, it appears that someone took control of the frequency and transmitted the tones that turned on all 156 sirens across the city. Broadnax said he was "leery about [sharing] how these systems work," citing security concerns. He would confirm only that "it's a tonal-type system." In Moore, Okla. — a town in Tornado Alley that relies on sirens for weather emergencies — a base radio station...

Just before midnight Friday, emergency sirens began wailing throughout Dallas after an apparent system malfunction. Dallas spokeswoman Sana Syed said emergency crews were working to fix the problem, but that the fix may take a while "because it's a manual shutoff." There are quite a few tornado sirens in town, so the incident was anything but isolated.

NEW YORK (AP) -- There were times by the end of his shift that firefighter Joseph Nardone's head would be pounding, his eyes crossing from the noise of the siren on his truck. "The siren was so loud inside the cab that it actually physically hurt," said the former New York City fire battalion chief. Even though he's been retired for over a decade, he said, the effects of the sirens linger in hearing loss that has left him unable to understand rapid conversation or follow along in church.

Six soldiers were wounded on Tuesday evening by a barrage of mortar shells in the Gaza Region. The condition of the six wounded soldiers has not yet been made public. Yesterday, four soldiers were killed by mortar shells near Israel’s border with Gaza: Staff Sergeant Eliav Eliahu Chaim Kachlon, aged 22 from Tzfat; Corporal Meidan Maimon Bitton, aged 20 from Netivot; Corporal Niran Cohen, aged 20 from Tiberias; and Sergeant Major Adi Brigga, aged 23 from Beit Shikmah. Earlier on Tuesday night, at around 8:20 p.m. sirens were heard in Beit Shemesh, the communities comprising the Mateh Yehudah region, and...

Sirens sounded Saturday evening in northern Israel as rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon into the Jewish state. The sirens sounded in Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Kabri and Hanita, along the border with Lebanon. Initial analysis said that the rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon by a Palestinian Lebanese terror group. "Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in the Nahariya region," a coastal town around 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the border with Lebanon, an army spokeswoman told AFP. Israel responded with artillery fire targeting the firing points. A Lebanese security source told AFP at least one rocket...

Israeli media reports: Air raid sirens wail in northern Israel

Emergency Sirens Signal False Alarm On MauiPOSTED: 11:18 am HST December 22, 2011 WAILUKU, Hawaii -- Maui police are alerting the public that despite civil defense sirens sounding early Thursday, there is no emergency. Maui officials are looking into why sirens used to alert residents to emergencies such as tsunamis accidentally went off. Police spokesman Lt. Wayne Ibarra says the sirens jolted him out of bed at about 1 a.m.

Police and drivers get ready for Rumblers Din-filled times spur new device By Maria Cramer Globe Staff / May 19, 2008 Modern technology has been hard on the old-fashioned police siren. Drivers are pumping up the volume in their cars to earth-shaking decibels, chattering on their cellphones or texting their friends. Others are driving in cars so insulated from outside noise, they are practically sound-proof. Enter the Rumbler.

Long live Karl Rove!

NYC Mayor Orders Lights, Sirens Removed From 250 Vehicles The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the lights and sirens removed from more than 250 city vehicles Friday after one of his deputy mayors was caught on video routinely and unnecessarily using the equipment on her official car. Only about 70 civilians in the Bloomberg administration, including the mayor and one of five deputy mayors, will be allowed to keep their lights and sirens. A week ago, WCBS-TV aired videotape of Deputy Mayor Carol Robles-Roman zipping from work to home in her official car, its lights...

Israel has been divided into ten "siren" areas. In case of emergency alert of an approaching missile, a one-minute rising-and-falling siren will be sounded throughout the country. As the threat is deemed to have passed, the various areas will be notified. Those in Area Aleph (Tel Aviv and environs), for instance, might be informed that it is safe to take off their masks and leave their sealed rooms at the same time that those in nearby Area Zayin (Netanya) must await further instructions. Northern Israel is Area Daled, except for Haifa and Acco, which are Area Bet. Northern Shomron is...