The National Weather Service will be conducting a tornado drive on Wednesday as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week.
The Chatham Emergency Management Agency will also be testing its communication tools that are used to provide critical information to the public during an emergency.
According to CEMA, Wednesday's tornado drill test will involve:
CEMA will sound the outdoor warning siren system at the same time as statewide tornado drill, which usually starts at 9 a.m. That siren will sound for three minutes.
CEMA will test the County's Community Notification System. Some downtown Savannah residents and businesses will receive this test call. The 30-second message begins with: "Exercise, exercise, exercise, this is a test of the Chatham County Community Notification System, please do not hang up." During a real emergency, this message states life-saving information to the entire county in a short amount of time. To register for phone alerts, go to www.ChathamEmergency.org.
CEMA will test the Emergency Alert System, which can override COMCAST cable stations. Subscribers will see and hear a pre-scripted message alerting you that the test has started. That will take place starting at about 9 a.m.
Lamar Advertising will display a statewide tornado message on its 16 digital billboards around the Savannah area. It will run from 9 to 9:30 a.m.
CEMA will send out an email during the drill to those signed up for email CEMA Alerts. A fax alert will go out those signed up to receive alerts by fax.
CEMA's website www.ChathamEmergency.org will change over starting at 9 a.m. to emergency mode, which will have information details needed during an actual emergency. It will remain active for five minutes.
Updates will also be sent from CEMA's Twitter and Facebook pages.
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