The Grover Beach Police Department has a new slogan: “When you hear the ‘hi-lo,’ it’s time to go.”
The new hi-lo siren is installed in all of our patrol cars, and it’s going to be used for natural disasters or major emergencies when we need to quickly get the alert out for folks to evacuate and leave the area,” Grover Beach Chief of Police Jim Munro said.
Natural disasters that require immediate evacuation include tsunamis, wildfires, and tornadoes, according to Munro.
The department will still use traditional sirens, but this particular sound means its time to evacuate to a safer location. Munro says all law enforcement agencies in the county have been asked to participate.
This is a real quick, easy way for an audible tone that the officers can traverse the streets in the city of Grover Beach and other cities and get the word out really, really quickly that there’s an emergency and it’s time to go,” Munro said.
The county’s sheriff department is also using the siren. It’s unclear which other city police departments have acted on the initiative at this time.
Evacuation zones and a list of emergency bag essentials can be found on readyslo.org in the event you hear a hi-lo siren.