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What the **** is that noise?
Wednesday February 3, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
On Wednesday Switzerland echoed to the sound of more than 8,000 sirens going off. Was it World War 3, a series of avalanches sweeping down the mountains, the dams bursting or the end of the world?
It was a test just in case any one of those things were to happen and it certainly gave us a jolt out in our base resort of Verbier even though we were expecting it.
Every year on the first Wednesday in February the sirens are tested.
There are 2 types; one for a general alarm and another that emits a different sound to warn people living below a dam that there is danger.
If you are not expecting it then it can be a bit of a shock.
"The Swiss love their nuclear bunkers and sirens, and every year they test all the sirens in the country - arguably just to terrify foreigners who aren't expecting it. So, about an hour ago it was like the end of the world as Verbier echoed to the sound of various loud wailing devices," says PlanetSKI reporter Guy Ordway, who works for Performance ski school in the resort.
"It didn't give us too much of a shock as we were expecting it but that said when they did it last year I was particularly hung over and thought it was the end of the world."
If you want to find out more about the testing that started during World War 2 then see here.
Only in Switzerland!
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