I wonder how many people needed to change their underwear after hearing this mistaken broadcast?
A similar thing happened to me when I was a kid, back when
Nixon was president. My family lived on Long Island, NY,
about 35 - 40 miles east of mid-town Manhattan. Anyway,
my family was having dinner, and way down the road, the siren (on a tower) at the local fire house starting to loudly emit what sounded like a loud “air raid” tone....
just like during the “Battle of Britain” in the 1940’s.
You could hear it for miles in all directions. My father says, at the dinner table, “Is that an air raid siren?”
I thought the Russians were bombing New York! I nearly dove under the table.
As it turned out, someone accidentally activated the Emergency Broadcast System. There was a big hullabaloo
in the media, because all the television stations were supposed to cease their programming, and only half of them did.
In Chicago, we told Polish jokes, but we re-elected Irish jokes.
Your story is interesting! I had a similar scare. In 1988 at a rural college town, I was up late one night watching TV. Suddenly, the tv went off with a flash. No big deal, a ‘power hit’ - so i tried to go to sleep. Suddenly, the civil defense sirens went off! (Again, this is like 1130pm.) Somewhat concerned, I got up to look out the window at the neighborhood and in to the main street. There were no lights working anywhere - not even the stop lights. The siren grew louder! Somewhat PANICED, I went to the phone to try to call family in Denver - but he phone lines were dead!! I went to the rooftop balconey of my fraternity house and there was only a far off glow of light where Denver ‘was’. Adrenaline pumping, i got dressed to go down and take a drive- and my car would not start - it would not turn over!! I got out of the car, wondering what I was to do next!! Suddenly, the power came back on and the siren stopped.
I later discovered the phone was unplugged but never could find out what happened as per the car/power/siren coincidence. I shared the story with fraternity brothers whom heard the siren. We all shared the brief feeling of what it must be like to imagine surviving the worst case scenario.