aerial view of Western's campus at night, with golden lights surrounded by dark trees

to Test Emergency and Earthquake Preparedness Wednesday, April 20

Contact: University Communications, (360) 650-3350

BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University plans to assess its emergency and earthquake preparedness on Wednesday, April 20 by testing its emergency steam whistle and notification system known as Western Alert.

At 9:45 a.m. on April 20, the “Big Ole” steam whistle will sound for several minutes and a test message will be sent out to students, faculty, and staff via campus e-mail and cell phone text messaging. Test messages will also be posted on the University’s homepage at and the emergency information website at . The steam whistle is a signal on campus to immediately look for emergency information through the above sources.

A text message is one of the most reliable ways to quickly provide emergency information. Even if users do not regularly text on their cell phones, most phones are capable of receiving text information. Western students, faculty and staff who have not yet registered to receive Western Alerts via text message are asked to update their personal information via the Web4U application. Employees may also call the Human Resources Department at 650-3774 for assistance in signing up.

To date, 89 percent of students, 58 percent of staff and 45 percent of faculty members have provided their cell phone numbers to Web4U to receive emergency text messages.

The recent events in Japan have reinforced the importance of earthquake preparedness and safety. And April 20 also is the statewide earthquake preparedness day to practice Drop, Cover and Hold, and Western students, faculty and staffare being asked to consider the steam whistle a reminder of the opportunity to practice their drop, cover and hold earthquake preparations. The state does this semi-annually to help citizens conquer the instinct to run. During earthquakes, many people’s fight or flight instinct urges them to run even when they know they should “drop, cover, hold.” We learn to counter this instinctive to run by practicing doing the safe response. For more information see the WashingtonState website.

The steam whistle, affectionately known in Whatcom County as “Big Ole,” was cast from aluminum-bronze by the Bellingham Bay Iron Works in 1899. The 2,000-pound, five-foot whistle operated at the local lumber mill on the waterfront at the foot of

Cornwall Avenue
until 1942 when that mill closed. In May 2002 the whistle was recovered from the Bloedel, Stewart-Welch’s Division at Port Alberni, B.C. which operated it until 1997. The steam whistle was installed at the Encogen NW Cogeneration Plant at
Cornwall Avenue
, where it was operational and blown on several special occasions, such as the Fourth of July. Several years ago, Western worked in cooperation with the WhatcomMuseum to relocate the steam whistle to the University’s Steam Plant.