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Disaster warning sirens in the CRD?


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#1 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 01:13 PM

http://maps.google.c...,93.68,,0,12.32

Back when I was a kid there were a few around town, and they'd test them now and then. See what looks like a manhole cover there, I think that's the base of where one was.

Are they gone now?

I'll admit we never really knew what they were for, and they did not have a sign on the bottom saying "if this siren is waling, go tune your radio to XX.xx" or anything.

I can't remember where more were, but there were others around town for sure.
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#2 Sparky

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 03:16 PM

They were air raid sirens that were installed after the second world war, mostly in the 50's. There was one at the bottom of Calumet at Cloverdale. I just checked....it's gone now.

I think we were told that if we heard them at school we were supposed to hide under the desk. If you heard them at home you were supposed to go to the basement if you had one.

Here is a confusing story.

http://www.thestar.c...air-raid-sirens

#3 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 04:26 PM

Interesting. Maybe our parents didn't want to scare us about air-raids.

They said they were for other emergencies. Like hurricanes?
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#4 AllseeingEye

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 05:12 PM

Although it is true they were intended for "emergencies" generally these sirens were in effect primarily intended to warn of imminent nuclear attack i.e. first from Soviet bombers and then later from ICBM's. There was also one located at the bottom of our hill in the park across from St Aidan's chuch at Cedar Hill X Rd and Richmond. They would often go off during especially strong wind storms. I still recall the eerie wailing sound when they did.

Almost seems like they are from another era which in effect they are; those were the days when the RCAF (and USAF) routinely had interceptors patrolling the skies around the island "just in case" those Soviet bombers made an unexpected appearance over BC. Still recall the the wild sonic booms whenever they cracked off their afterburners which was common back then.

Back to VHF's question it would be very interesting to know whether any of the old sirens survive. They should as they were extremely effective; when they would go off in concert, as they occasionally did when the authorities conducted broad tests of the system, there was virtually nowhere in the greater CRD you could go and not hear them. They would certainly be a great asset to a tsunami warning system today for example.

#5 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 05:23 PM

There was also one located at the bottom of our hill in the park across from St Aidan's chuch at Cedar Hill X Rd and Richmond. They would often go off during especially strong wind storms. I still recall the eerie wailing sound when they did.


Ya! That's the one I zoomed in on in my first post. It was actually off the parking lot of Horner Park on Palo Alto St., just south of Kisber.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#6 LJ

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 06:50 PM

Don't we have tsunami warning sirens on some parts of the island, or we're putting some in?

I thought I read that somewhere.

Only thing is, of course, people have to know what they mean when they go off.

I know if a siren went off now all you would get is hundreds of people jamming the 911 circuits.

They have tornado warning sirens in some parts of the US.
Life's a journey......so roll down the window and enjoy the breeze.

#7 steeliefisher

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 06:51 PM

i belive there was one on burnside road by the forestry center at one time

#8 Bingo

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 07:06 PM

I think there is one on top of the Legion on Admirals Road.

#9 Sparky

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 07:35 PM

I think there is one on top of the Legion on Admirals Road.


That one is a warning that the sailors are back in town.

#10 Holden West

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:12 PM

I remember one near CFB Esquimalt in the late 70s. I had no idea why it would go off. Was it military related? Volunteer fire department? Civil Defence testing? Who knows? All I know it was damn spooky.

As for nuclear bomb warnings...gee, thanks to that five-minute warning, The Soviet army would have known that my ashes will be right underneath my elementary school desk instead of some random location.
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#11 Matt R.

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:22 PM

There was one in Gordon Head, corner of Tyndall Ave and San Juan Ave when I was a kid. Long gone now, as is Benson of the Gordon Head Store fame.. miss you, Benson.

http://maps.google.c...ved=0CB0Q8gEwAA

#12 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:33 PM

There was one in Gordon Head, corner of Tyndall Ave and San Juan Ave when I was a kid. Long gone now, as is Benson of the Gordon Head Store fame.. miss you, Benson.

http://maps.google.c...ved=0CB0Q8gEwAA


That's right! My 'hood too. Now Matt, wasn't there a real, or imaginary underground bomb shelter there? There was definitely a hump in the ground covered by earth there, right behind the store.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#13 Holden West

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:43 PM

dp
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#14 Matt R.

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:47 PM

Yeah there was something like that linked to a shed/garage on the property, used to ride our bikes and skateboards over it while we ate candy and chips. Never really got the impression that there was anything underground, but I was always eating candy so the memory is foggy.

Remember the goat lady just a few blocks away on Longacre @ Torquay Drive? I think she even had a cow or two.

Matt.

#15 Holden West

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 10:10 PM

I think we were told that if we heard them at school we were supposed to hide under the desk. If you heard them at home you were supposed to go to the basement if you had one.


I thought you were going to say they existed to alert you of the approach of the Czar's Imperial navy.
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#16 Sparky

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Posted 02 May 2012 - 03:39 AM

I thought you were going to say they existed to alert you of the approach of the Czar's Imperial navy.


That was the one on top of the legion. It had a different sound. If you played the sound back in reverse it said "Your boyfriend's back. Get out of the Tudor."

#17 JohnN

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Posted 18 March 2022 - 06:20 PM

With Russian president Putin making nuclear threats, will the sirens return?

 

Maybe with the incredible speed of Russia's new hypersonic missiles, it won't really matter with only a few minutes warning.

 

NukeMap image below centred on CFB Esquimalt suggests geographic limits of effects from ground burst of a Russian Topol SS25, yield 800 kilotons. 

 

Putin's Nuclear Threats Are a Wake-Up Call for the World 

Putin Is Likely to Make Nuclear Threats If War Drags, U.S. Says

US thinks Russia will lean into nuclear threat as invasion drags on

Why Putin’s nuclear threat could be more than bluster

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#18 Nparker

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Posted 18 March 2022 - 06:21 PM

If there's a nuclear strike, the lucky people will be the ones who die instantly.



#19 LJ

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Posted 18 March 2022 - 07:28 PM

Why would the Russians waste a missile on something that could never hurt them?


Life's a journey......so roll down the window and enjoy the breeze.

#20 AllseeingEye

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Posted 18 March 2022 - 08:34 PM

According to a declassified document from the cold war which I got access to when doing some research for the university history department many years ago the Capital Region was to be bracketed by up to three nukes; Vancouver as I recall was to get a real going over, between 5-6 warheads. Going back further into the 1950's when the US was far and away the pre-eminent and essentially unchallenged nuclear power on earth, one Pentagon war fighting scenario had Beijing (then still referred to as Peking on the document) being turned into one vast literal parking lot - with 23 atomic bombs. 


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