Heads up residents of Georgetown, your quiet mountain town is about to get a little nosier every first Wednesday of each month.
The early warning dam sirens that have been in place for years and are just now being activated will be starting at 10 a.m. on March 6. According to Clear Creek County, each test will sound like the following:
“Attention! This is a test of the dam failure warning system. This is only a test. If this was an actual emergency you would receive instructions. This is only a test.”
Whoop tone for 30 seconds.
Post-test message: “This has been a test of the dam failure warning system. This was only a test.”
Flood sirens are seen in Georgetown, Colorado on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024.
CBS
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The siren locations are as follows:
Xcel Energy Georgetown Substation, 600 Griffith Street
Werlin Park, 11th Street and Taos Street
Meadows Park tennis/basketball courts, Main Street (south of Skyline Drive)
Georgetown Lake west shore, Tom Bennhoff Lake Trail (north of the restrooms)
Lynette Kelsey, police judge of Georgetown, explained she’s not quite sure what the hold up was for years after the sirens were installed, but what matters now is that they’re about to get monthly use and residents will need to be aware of what’s happening to make the best use of them.
Georgetown Police Judge Lynette Kelsey
CBS
The sirens would actually sound in an emergency should the dams above town give way and send a cascading wall of water down the valley into town, which would give people minutes to evacuate.
“There aren’t that many ways to get out of town,” Kelsey said, gesturing east. “What are you going to do, outrun it going that way?”
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While Kelsey said she’s no stranger to the idea of sirens going off, having grown up in the Midwest, she said it will take some getting used to in Georgetown. But eventually, it will feel like home again.
“If it goes off the same time every month, you hear it and you go, “what’s that?” and then you register,” Kelsey said. But she doesn’t want people to grow complacent. “You need to be ready to leap into action (if it’s the real deal) because we don’t have that much time.”
Spencer Wilson
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Spencer Wilson is CBS News Colorado’s mountain newsroom reporter. Read his latest reports or check out his bio and send him an email.
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Colorado’s best ski deal? Maybe one that costs nothing at all. At Steamboat Springs’ Howelsen Hill, “Sunday Funday is taken to an entirely new level,” reads the city webpage for Ski Free Sundays. Yes, on Sundays throughout the season, visitors need only to walk into the ticket office to grab a pass at no charge. […]
While Colorado ranks near the middle of U.S. states for carbon emissions per capita, it still produces enough CO2 per person to rival countries on the World Bank’s list of top emitters internationally.
In 2023, Colorado produced 13.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per capita. If it had been ranked by the World Bank during the same year, Colorado would have placed 14th among the more than 200 countries on the list, just behind Canada, at 14.1, and just ahead of the U.S. as a whole, at 13.7.
Among U.S. states, Colorado ranked 26th in carbon emissions per capita. Wyoming had the highest per capita emissions in the country, at 92.9 metric tons, while Maryland had the lowest, at 7.8.
Most of Colorado’s emissions come from energy production and consumption, primarily natural gas and oil production and electric power production and consumption.
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The Colorado Sun partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
Sources
References:
Colorado State Energy Profile, U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed in December 2025. Source link
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2023 Colorado Statewide Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, pg. 128, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, November 2024. Source link
Senate Bill 24-230 Oil and Gas Production Fees, Colorado General Assembly, accessed in December, 2025. Source link
Senate Bill 23-016 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measures, Colorado General Assembly, accessed in December 2025. Source link
Carbon dioxide emissions, World Bank Group, 2024, accessed in December 2025. Source link
Energy-related CO2 emission data tables, U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed in December 2025. Source link
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Type of Story: Fact-Check
Checks a specific statement or set of statements asserted as fact.
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Cassis Tingley is a Denver-based freelance journalist. She’s spent the last three years covering topics ranging from political organizing and death doulas in the Denver community to academic freedom and administrative accountability at the…
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Just a few short days after landing tight end Houston Thomas from the NCAA transfer portal, Mike Elko and the Texas A&M Aggies have now added reinforcements on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage.
Former Colorado Buffaloes safety Tawfiq Byard has officially announced his move from the Big 12 to the SEC, just a handful of days after entering the portal himself.
After A&M safety Bryce Anderson’s recent announcement of his own portal entry, Byard could be just the replacement that Elko and new defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill need in the “Wrecking Crew’s” defensive backfield.
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A&M Lands Safety Tawfiq Byard From Colorado
Byard will now play football for his third school in his college career, having also spent some of his playing days with the South Florida Bulls before making the move to Boulder to play for NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes.
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Colorado Buffaloes defensive back Tawfiq Byard (7) reacts in the first quarter against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Folsom Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
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Byard’s sophomore campaign in 2025 was much more telling than that of his previous efforts with the Bulls, appearing in all 12 games for the Buffs while starting in eight of those games.
The defensive back would lead the Colorado defense with 85 tackles and was tied for 26th in the nation in the solo tackles category, with 57, and his eight tackles for loss were the third-most by a safety in the history of the program.
His performance, which also included two forced fumbles, an interception, and 0.5 sacks, earned him an honorable mention on the All-Big 12 team.
For a Texas A&M team that has struggled with injuries in recent years, including one to Anderson, a head injury during the win over Notre Dame, Byard’s durability is exactly what Texas A&M needs on defense, and his efficiency will help tie together what should be a younger A&M secondary in the 2026 season.
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During his pair of years in South Florida, Byard appeared in 16 games while starting 10, all of which came in his redshirted freshman season, where he finished with 54 tackles (34 solo), eight tackles for loss, two sacks, one interception, and a fumble recovery before transferring to Colorado.
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The Buffaloes had a rough ride of a season in their first without quarterback Shedeur Sanders and former Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, with only a 3-9 record (1-8 conference) to show for in 2025, their lone conference win coming against a ranked Iowa State Cyclones team.
With the defensive backfield back in decent order, the Aggies now look ahead to a grinding offseason before starting their third season under head coach Mike Elko with a hosting of the Missouri State Bears at Kyle Field on September 5.
