WWU to Test Emergency Steam Whistle, Western Alert System on Wednesday, Nov. 18

DATE: November 13, 2009 3:31:51 PM PST

Contact: University Communications (360) 650-3350

BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University plans to conduct a campus-wide test of its emergency steam whistle “Big Ole” and notification system, known as Western Alert, on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The purpose of the test is to ensure that members of the university community can be contacted during a campus emergency.

Steam whistle testing will begin at 9:45 a.m. and could last for several minutes. Shortly after the first steam whistle tests on Nov. 18, a test message will be sent out to students, faculty, and staff via campus e-mail and cell phone text messaging. Test messages will also be posted on the University’s homepage at www.wwu.edu and the Emergency Information Web site at emergency.wwu.edu.

Western students, faculty and staff who have not yet registered to receive Western Alerts via text message are asked to update their personal information via the Web4u application at Web4U. Parents of students also can sign up to receive the alerts via Western Alert

To date, 79 percent of WWU students, 44 percent of staff and 28 percent of faculty members have provided their cell phone numbers to Web4U to receive emergency text messages. The high number of student cell phone numbers collected resulted from very successful efforts of requesting cell phone numbers as students picked up their bus passes.

Students, faculty and staff who are on or near campus during the test are asked to e-mail news@wwu.edu to indicate whether or not they hear Big Ole sound, and where they were at the time.

While text and cell phone messages are an important component to Western’s emergency communications, the university also is working to design an emergency voice broadcasting system for buildings and outdoor areas to improve communications during emergencies.

The steam whistle, affectionately known in Whatcom County as “Big Ole,” was cast from aluminum-bronze by the Bellingham Bay Iron Works in 1899. The 2,000-pound, five-foot whistle operated at the local lumber mill on the waterfront at the foot of Cornwall Avenue until 1942 when that mill closed. In May 2002 the whistle was recovered from the Bloedel, Stewart-Welch’s Division at Port Alberni, B.C. which operated it until 1997. The steam whistle was installed at the Encogen NW Cogeneration Plant at Cornwall Avenue, where it was operational and blown on several special occasions, such as the Fourth of July. Several years ago, Western worked in cooperation with the Whatcom Museum to relocate the steam whistle to the University’s Steam Plant.

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