This will blow their mind??

Thursday, 4:35 pm

By Kate

Oct

23

2008

On Saturday the towns within the 10 mile radius of the Seabrook nuclear power plant will conduct a test of the emergency siren system—121 alarms. Oh boy. The newspaper and radio station have been issuing warnings for the past two weeks. The powers that be would like to avoid a public panic. Even so, there will be people who won’t know about it. If not for my neighbor calling me to let me know (I don’t subscribe to the local paper or listen to the local radio station), I might have been just a little nervous, too. People with farm animals are being contacted as well. Animals are at high risk of going berserk, apparently.

I checked the local paper online and found this interesting article—Siren test likely to frighten animals.

The article goes on to say that even the whales will be jumping out of the water in response to the horrendous noise. That seems to suggest something very, very loud and disturbing. The local animal control officer says,

"If they have problems with fireworks or thunderstorms, they will certainly have a problem with this,” Taylor said. “If you are not going to be home on Saturday when the alarm goes off, then you must make sure they are secure. This is way more than a fire detector sound or thunder; this will blow their mind."

Any guesses as to what my house will be like around 12:30 pm on Saturday? Holy moly. Abbie is utterly terrified of thunder and fireworks. If this will be as bad as it sounds, Abbie’s going to need counseling afterwards. And the birds will probably go nuts, too.

The article doesn’t say what pet owners might do for their animals to help mitigate the discomfort. I suppose wrapping the birds in blankets might help. Abbie? Stick her in the basement? Put her in her travel crate and wrap it? Let her hide under the bed? Play the stereo really loudly? I don’t know.

I’ve heard the sirens in town go off before and they are loud. When I had Terry and Peeps, they flipped out. It was as if someone was drilling into Peep’s head. He covered his ears with his paws and rolled on the floor. I don’t remember what Abbie did. They’ve never tested all 121 sirens at once before. This could be an event with some real unintended consequences. I do hope we survive with everyone’s mind intact.