By Jessie Faulkner
The Times-Standard

EUREKA, Calif. — The Governor's Office of Emergency Services, the National Weather Service and the local Office of Emergency Services, part of the Sheriff's Department, are once again coordinating a live test of the tsunami warning system.

Such a live test debuted in March through the Emergency Alert System, a voluntary program where disaster warnings are sent across television screens and sent out on the radio waves. The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors gave conditional approval to the test for March 25, 2009.

The North Coast's first "live code" test was such a success that it didn't result in a single 911 call.

Organizers are hoping for the same response next year. The difference between this test and the normal tests of the emergency alert system is that the code used will actually issue a tsunami warning.

"It's a different type of test than we typically do," James D. Goltz told the supervisors. Goltz is the earthquake and tsunami program manager for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

This time around, organizers are going to up the stakes a bit -- not just activating the emergency alert system. The key, Goltz said, is to ensure that everyone is educated ahead of time that the test is just that -- a test.

"We must ensure that people understand this is a test and not a real emergency," Goltz said.

The objective of the 2008 test, county OES Program Coordinator Dan Larkin said, was to issue the warning without causing panic or other adverse reaction -- a necessary precursor if such tests are to be taken statewide or into more populated areas.

"The bottom line was this was a successful test for us," he said.

That success, Larkin said, resulted from considerable public outreach and planning.

"Most importantly," Larkin said, "we set the stage for an expanded test."

This year organizers are planning to up the stakes by testing selected sirens and running evacuation drills as well as putting the warning out on the emergency alert system.

That could include sending out all-terrain vehicles to warn folks on the beaches.

Still, although the intent is to broaden the test of warning systems, organizers want to assure that the effort will not cause panic. For that reason, Goltz said, the test won't proceed if an earthquake has shaken the North Coast.

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