SEABROOK — There were no reports of whales jumping from the ocean or spooked animals running downtown in the wake of the first regionwide Seabrook Station siren test. In fact, many local residents are saying the drill sirens were not even loud enough to hear from their homes.

On Saturday, 121 sirens were activated to allow residents a chance to hear the sound and to help get them thinking about what they would do should a real-life emergency occur. But many local residents said they could barely hear them, or didn't hear them at all.

"All I could hear was a very far away faint whistle," Lynette Leka of Pine Island in Old Newbury said. "I wouldn't hear it at all if I were running the vacuum or mowing the lawn."

Leka noted while growing up in the Midwest, she would hear the tornado warning sirens, which she said "blew her socks off." She said there was no way to miss the tornado sirens that were numerous on streets in her hometown.

Seabrook Station officials are deeming the drill a success, saying the goal of activating the sirens to raise awareness about how they'll be used was achieved.

"We met our objective of the day, which was to ensure the sirens sounded, and most importantly, people now know what to do in an event they do hear them," Seabrook Station spokesman Al Griffith said in response to complaints. "We wanted to increase the public's awareness of the siren."

At his Ferry Road home in Salisbury, Brud Janvrin said his wife and son went onto the porch to listen for the sirens but heard nothing.

"We went to the library a couple hours later, and they said they heard it but had to go outdoors to hear," Janvrin said.

On his way home from the library, something clicked for Janvrin. He remembered about 15 years ago reporting to police a man cutting down one of the siren poles with a chain saw in protest of nuclear power plants.

"I never noticed they didn't replace the siren until now," Janvrin said. "I called Robert Cook (director of Emergency Management in Salisbury) to make sure he could bring the information to the plant when they meet to discuss how the drill went."

Cook said yesterday he as well as Seabrook officials are aware the pole was never replaced. He did not wish to comment any further on complaints he has taken over the past week.

Janvrin questioned why officials are deeming the drill a success when all of Ferry Road was in silence Saturday.

"The nearest siren is in Newburyport," Janvrin said. "It's scary."

In light of any complaints voiced to local emergency management offices, Griffith said discussions about what worked will be ongoing until a final technical report is filed in the coming weeks.

"We can't help that," Griffith responded to the complaints the siren wails were too low. "I think it was characterized by some people to be a lot louder, and it's possible the expectations were heightened because of media coverage."

Griffith said while a complete final report of the technical effectiveness of the sirens will be forthcoming, he reiterated plant officials met their objective.

"We had 121 volunteers at 121 sirens," Griffith said. "Each siren was observed, documented, and all the final reports will be included in the technical review and will be discussed."

The test was prompted by a siren that went off unexpectedly in Amesbury over a year ago. The siren, which malfunctioned in the middle of the night, caused a flood of calls to the town's 911 dispatch.

Last week, Amesbury enacted its Code Red system to alert residents of the impending test, and local emergency management got the word out through fliers, letters, phone calls and highway signs.

Mayor Thatcher Kezer said he was at the Woodsom Farm Festival during the test and said while the sirens were not deafening, it all depended on where you were in town.

"At the police station, the siren is right here at Town Hall, and they said it hurt to hear," Kezer said. "But at Woodsom Farm with the band not playing you could hear it in the distance."

Kezer said the benefit of using more than one method of notification in Amesbury is helpful for those who may not have heard the siren or live far from one.

"The initial notification is for everyone to tune into the news media," Kezer said. "Public safety gets a page, and then with the benefit of Code Red, we can alert everyone. No one method is employed. We use different methods to get the word out."

Griffith echoed Kezer, noting it depends on where you are, though he said everyone can hear something even if the sound isn't very loud.

"It may not have been as loud as people believed it would be, but it also depends who you talk to and where they were," Griffith said. "The sirens are designed per Federal requirements to offer as much coverage as possible within the 10-mile zone. If anything, it is a lesson learned for the future that we need to manage people's expectation as to how the sirens sound."

Griffith said the most important objective of the sirens was to alert residents as to what they sound like and how to react should a real-life emergency occur.

"Saturday, people heard the sirens," Griffith said. "We wanted to increase public awareness and to have them familiar with turning to the media for more information if they hear the sirens. It was a public awareness drill. That was the most important outcome."

The media did not carry emergency messages on Saturday, but Griffith wanted residents to be clear on where they would be broadcast. In the event of a real emergency, residents can tune to 97.5 FM in New Hampshire, and WBZ 1030 AM, 1450 AM, 92.5 FM and 93.7 FM in Massachusetts.

Whether the siren drill will be an annual event will be one of the discussions plant officials will be having in the coming weeks.