12 o’clock the first Monday of the Month indeed like clock work, the sirens sound. When a child in the US* we had Air-Raid sirens that sounded for a time. This feels like the continuation of that. The First-Monday-of-the-Month-Drill is to be certain that the system is in working order should the emergency arise that the folk needs to take action. It certainly would involve rising water levels.
*In response to perceived Cold War threats, on February 20, 1950, [Portland Oregon] Mayor Dorothy McCullough Lee appointed Charles Pray as Portland’s first director of Civil Defense (CD) in accordance with Chapter 434, Oregon Laws 1949. Within a few years, the department had become a national model; and in 1956, Portland opened the first completely underground CD facility in the country. Just seven years later, Portland achieved another CD milestone when it became the first city in the nation to dissolve its program.
On September 27, 1955, at 3:05 in the afternoon, sirens signaled the start of the exercise. By 3:59, 29,423 vehicles and 101,074 people had evacuated the test area; the majority of downtown had been cleared within thirty minutes. The exercise, the largest evacuation in the nation to date, received national attention because of its efficiency. Based on the success of Operation Green Light, in 1957 CBS filmed a documentary, A Day Called X, highlighting Portland’s program. Actor Glen Ford narrated the documentary, and Portland Mayor Terry Schrunk and other city officials starred.