Extreme Mountain Weather

Shawn · March 8, 2004

An improbable tidal-wave warning sent out over the Eagle County emergency-broadcast system on Wednesday had residents of Gypsum, elevation 6,334 feet, questioning whether they needed to dig out life preservers or scramble for higher ground.

Four radio stations in the landlocked mountain community sounded the jarring alert about 7:15 a.m., the result of a weekly test of the county warning system that went awry.

"I figured it was just a test, and then a female voice came on afterwards and said something like, 'Attention Gypsum residents: You must evacuate now.' Then it went back to the Allman Brothers album I was playing. It freaked me out a little bit," said Brian Wilder, the morning-show host and program director at KTUN-"The Eagle."

As the station's phone lines lit up with calls from concerned residents and deejays fumbled for emergency numbers, a Teletype message came across: "The civil authorities have issued a tsunami alert for Pitkin and Eagle counties."

The warning drew immediate skepticism high in the Rockies, more than 1,500 miles from the nearest ocean.

"My co-host and I looked at the sheet and said, 'Oh, look - they've issued a tsunami warning!"' Wilder said with a chuckle. "Luckily, no information about a tsunami went out over the air until after we found out what happened."

As it turns out, it seems that someone at the county's communication center hit the wrong button during the weekly test and accidentally broadcast the intentionally fake emergency message, according to the center's manager, Paul Smith.

"The good news is, at least we're testing, and at least it works," he said, obviously chagrined. "It's kind of a funny little thing, but the reality is we certainly strive to not make mistakes like that."

The tsunami message is the default on the computerized system, intended to relieve potentially panicked listeners just in case such a mistake does occur, Smith said.

"Typically, the message that we would relay would be like an Amber alert, flash floods, fires, hazardous-materials spills, blizzard warnings - that kind of thing," said Tony Mauro, general manager at KZYR-"The Zephyr." "It happens automatically. There is really no way for us to censor it or delay it."

He expressed some concern about creating a "Chicken Little" atmosphere with the false alarm and noted the serious responsibility of informing the public in case of a real emergency.

But, he acknowledged, "We had fun with it more than anything."

Bob Hendee, manager of the Columbine Market in Gypsum, reported no run on canned goods or ark materials Wednesday. In fact, he didn't learn about the tsunami warning until late in the day.

"Darn, I hate it when that happens," he joked.

Wilder lamented that he didn't play any music from the Beach Boys or Dick Dale in the wake of the incident, but he managed to make light of the situation nonetheless.

"We joked about it on the air. We said the tsunami must have been the result of the high winds out of the Rifle reservoir," he said.

Frances Barela, the assistant town manager in Gypsum, noted it was actually a beautiful, quiet day in Gypsum.

"I'd be more panicked if I was on the West Coast. It's going to hit them a lot earlier than it hits us," she said. "That would really scare me if a tsunami ever made it this far."