WATERVILLE – The wail was expected to fill the air, shock those who were not prepared, and cause hands to clasp over ears. But the first test of Colby College’s early warning siren fell a bit short Wednesday morning: The sound emitted was more like an injured loon.

“We learned a lot today,” Steven Collins of the college’s communications department admitted. He said a series of batteries within the siren had run down, and once that problem was corrected, the siren worked as expected.

Colby’s purchase and installation of the early warning system was prompted by school shootings across the country and a tragedy of its own.

A 21-year-old Colby senior, Dawn Rossignol of Medway, was abducted from campus in 2003 and brutally murdered a short distance away. The man accused of killing her, Edward Hackett, pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence plus 90 years in prison.

There is no indication that a safety siren would have played any role in the Rossignal incident, but the school wanted to expand its ability to alert students, faculty, visitors and the surrounding community about potential life-threatening emergencies.

“It’s the sound we hope we never hear again,” Ruth Jacobs, director of communications, said.

During the Cold War, virtually every city had a siren to warn citizens of a nuclear attack. Sirens could be heard every Saturday at noon when the system was tested.

Today those sirens are in museums, replaced by modern sirens that warn of tornadoes, floods and other severe weather conditions.

At Colby, Jacobs said the siren’s wail can be heard at least two miles away from its location on a hill behind the school’s chapel and near a former water tower.

Collins said staff members were positioned at various points across campus and reports were still being compiled about where the siren was heard.

Colby already has a cell phone and e-mail alert system that works quite well, Jacobs said. “This will augment what we currently are using,” she said. “We have had lots of discussions about when to use the siren versus the cell phone alert, but basically, students will be instructed by the siren to seek shelter, get inside and lock the doors until further instructions arrive.”

The siren was purchased from the former Maine Yankee nuclear power station in Newcastle and cost about $8,000. It was one of five, but Jacobs said the school needed only one. “We didn’t need that kind of power.”

She said the system will be tested again in April.

Jacobs said that except for infrequent, planned tests, the siren will be used only in the event of an actual threat of violence, environmental danger or other threat to public safety.

bdnpittsfield@verizon.net

487-3187