Charlotte area residents in earshot of the nuclear power plants on Lake Wylie and Lake Norman are about to hear testing sirens blast on April 1st.
The Catawba and McGuire nuclear station sirens will be tested between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and may sound for five to 30 seconds. Officials said anyone who hears them during that window does not need to take action.
Some sirens could sound more than once, and follow-up testing may continue after 1 p.m. if maintenance crews need to check certain units again.
The test covers a large network of sirens around both plants, including 89 sirens near the Catawba Nuclear Station in York County and 67 sirens near the McGuire Nuclear Station in Huntersville.
Because this is only a test, local TV and radio stations will not interrupt programming with emergency alerts. In a real emergency, those stations would broadcast public instructions.
The testing is being done with emergency management agencies in Mecklenburg, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, and Catawba counties, along with York County in South Carolina.
For people around Charlotte, Lake Norman, and Lake Wylie, the bottom line is simple: if you hear a siren late Wednesday morning, it’s probably just the scheduled nuclear warning system test.
