This is a picture of a luchtalarm (an air raid siren). I marvel at the fact that I live in a place that actually -has- air raid sirens. I know that in some of the midwestern states they're used as tornado alarms and the such, but we didn't have them in Utah.
On the first Monday of the month at noon they test the sirens, and though they're now used as an emergency siren instead of an air raid warning, one of us will undoubtedly scream "THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!" If the siren goes off at any time besides noon on the first Monday, you are to go inside and close all the doors and windows and turn on the radio or television to find out what sort of ramp (disaster in English) you are facing and how to proceed. Luckily that hasn't happened since I've been here!
Speaking of disasters... The first time Martijn visited Utah, we were driving to my grandma's house and had to get on the interstate. As in many places you need to go up an onramp to get on the freeway, and so it was nicely labeled in big bold letters "RAMP." So this funny little voice exclaims "OH NO! We're headed for disaster!" I think my friend Liz and I are still to this day laughing about it.
5 comments:
What a funny little story! I think they should have something like that in UT or CA to announce earthquakes... but I guess by the time went off everyone would be saying "well yah, duh." Hmm, maybe that is why they haven't caught on.
Yeah in Minnesota it is the first Wednesday of the Month at 1:00 P.M. We were in the parking lot of a restaurant when we first moved here. I thought for sure that we were going to wake up on the yellow brick road. I am not a big fan of the tornado sirens, or should I say what they mean.
I'm going to link this soon on my blog! I will never forget the first time I heard these sirens being aired-out.. For laughs, I remember seeing once on 60 Minutes or some other program in the States there is somewhere on the U.S. Pacific coastline a town which has a siren which sounds like cows mooing as a tidal wave/tsunami warning to the town folk.. I'll have to look it up ;-)
I've linked this blog entry to mine ;-)
For laughs, here is a video of the cow mooing siren I was telling you about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8upTxAytXh0
I love the new look here! Very cheerful!
I was just reviewing my blog entry about the luchtalarm, and I'm glad to see my entry is still linked properly to your blog.
Have a nice week :-)
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