If you hear a siren in the Williamsburg area Wednesday, don’t be alarmed.
The Surry Power Station will conduct its quarterly emergency warning siren test around 11:10 a.m. Wednesday, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said.
The siren test will include a steady three-minute tone and will be sounded by 71 sirens in Williamsburg and Newport News, as well as Surry, James City, York and Isle of Wight counties.
All siren locations are within a 10-mile radius of the power station, the department said.
The siren test sounds different than the siren for a true emergency. In a real emergency, residents in the area would hear four separate three-minute activiations, each punctuated with a minute of silence.
When a real emergency siren is activated, residents should look for updates and instructions from local officials and local media outlets that broadcast emergency information.
The next siren test this year will be Dec. 12.