CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Yeager Airport activated its new emergency siren Thursday afternoon that will be utilized in case of another hillslide or more flooding to Two Mile Creek.
After a Keystone Drive church was destroyed and dozens of residents were forced to evacuate in the Yeager Airport slide in March, precautions were needed in case of another disaster. Mike Plante, the Public Information Officer of Yeager Airport said the siren should be effective.
“The siren will be an extremely high pitched, 3-minute-long emergency siren. Much like the county has a siren, the airport has a siren,” Plante explained. “It will be much like that except it’s right here at the base of the slope.”
Plante said the siren would serve as a “last warning” in the event of severe flooding of Two Mile Creek, but residents will hear swift reach alerts before that.
“Should we have a significant rain event that causes a flood or if there’s more movement on the slope that would compromise Elk Two Mile Creek, we now have this system in place to warn residents via the emergency siren,” said Plante.
He said that letters would also be sent out to Keystone and Barlow drive residents this week to let them know the system is in place. He realized the March slide was a close call and although a lot of property was destroyed, no one was injured.
“We’re very fortunate in this catastrophe that no one was hurt, no one was injured,” he said. “There were three properties damaged by the slip itself. The other 10 properties were damaged by high water caused by material going into Elk Two Mile Creek.”
The alarm was not actually sounded off as a test Thursday; Plante indicated that the noise would be very unpleasant.