NMSU Gets Storm Sirens

A tornado in Las Cruces.

Maybe you cannot remember the last time you saw a funnel cloud touch down in the Borderland, but chances are you do remember last week?s winds.

Should a weather emergency strike, New Mexico State University is prepared.

NMSU teamed up with the National Weather Service to make its campus the 44th in the nation certified as ?Storm Weather Ready.?

“We may be the first storm ready community in this area for this region of the National Weather Service,” Steve Lopez, NMSU Deputy Chief of Police, said.

Towering about 40 feet in the air, two warning sirens stand on NMSU?s campus.

?For tornados, those are an automatic activation for outdoor warning sirens,? Lopez said. ?Time is of the absolute essence so when our dispatch gets warning they will hit that button.?

The University?s dispatch center is tuning into ABC-7?s Storm Track Weather Channel 7.3 to help learn of severe weather conditions.

Sounding sirens add a new component to NMSU?s existing Emergency Notification System.

“At any time you get a thunderstorm putting down 4 inches of rain, NMSU may be in trouble,? John Fausett, National Weather Service Meteorologist, said. ?And that would be another time you’d use the sirens.”

The National Weather Service says, September 2006 is a prime example of tornadic thunderstorms of the strength to activate the sirens.

“Its got to be something that?s going to affect a lot of people quickly and a threat to life,? Fausett said. ?It’s not going to be for just any severe storm moving across the area.”

Students say, they like the idea of having a warning system on-campus.

?If there was a tornado, I’d definitely want to know somehow if there’s some sort of siren alarm,? Dustin Mudgett, NMSU student, said.

“It may not ever happen, but there’s always that chance,? Justin Hendricks, another student, said.

Sound from an alerting siren reaches a one-mile radius and lasts a full minute.

“It’s just one more opportunity for us to provide as much notification to the public as necessary,? Lopez said.

The closest school with a weather warning system in place is 600 miles away, in Dallas.

NMSU?s first siren test is April 7th at noon.

Regularly scheduled tests will take place every first Wednesday of the month.