County exploring sirens for smaller communities

May 07, 2008 09:12 pm

— By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
Cyril Klava knows it’s going to be loud because she’s lived with a storm siren in her neighborhood for a while. It’s just that this one is almost in her back yard.
“I just hope we hear it,” she said. “I’d rather hear it than not hear it. They said they put it up higher than the other one and that a lot of it should go over our house.”
Klava lives at 21st Street and Bird Avenue, where a new storm siren has been installed to replace one in the alley a block north of her home. It is one of two sirens that will be replaced this spring in Joplin. The other is at 26th Street and Douglas Avenue, which is behind Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse.
“Both of them were put up in 1970,” said Keith Stammer, Joplin-Jasper County emergency management coordinator. “The new ones have a battery backup. The sirens can run off batteries if the electricity goes out. They can be activated two times before the batteries run down.”
While the city is replacing outdated sirens, Jasper County is exploring the possibility of installing sirens in smaller communities that do not have them. Of the 114 counties in Missouri, Jasper County has had more tornadoes than any other.
John Bartosh, presiding county commissioner, said: “We’ve mapped out where all the sirens are located. Now we’re asking them to come in and tell us where new ones need to be.”
The county commissioners are working with an Arkansas vendor to determine the locations for additional sirens, and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program on possible grant funding for the sirens.
The commissioners met recently with officials of communities that don’t have sirens to determine if there is an interest in the project. Mayors and village officials said they believe their residents would want the warning sirens if financing for the project is available.
Bartosh said the vendor is being asked to determine where new sirens are needed, and to check to make sure new equipment would be compatible with warning systems already in place in the county.
Once that work is done, Bartosh said, mayors and other officials will be called back together to talk about specific needs and grant funds that might be available.
A spokesman from the USDA has said grants from that agency could cover a portion of the cost. Bartosh said he has been told money also would be available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Stammer said sirens are a good way to alert people about severe weather when they are outdoors.
“They give a person five to 10 minutes to find a hidy-hole,” he said. “It’s just enough time to seek cover.”
Stammer underscored the importance of weather radios for people who live in areas of the county without sirens and even those who live in areas with sirens.
Sirens are most effective as warnings for people who are outside. When windows are closed and air conditioners are operating, people inside their homes often cannot hear the sirens. A weather radio automatically activates when severe weather threatens. It is the best available warning system, Stammer said.
The new siren at 21st Street and Bird Avenue will be activated in a few days. The one at 26th Street and Douglas Avenue will be activated in a few weeks. Typically, the city replaces at least one siren annually. A siren costs about $11,000. Installation on a new pole costs about $5,000.
The new sirens are more powerful. Stammer said people who are outdoors can usually hear a siren that is a mile away. The city, he said, has “lots of places where we have overlaps.”
The city operates 25 sirens, including four in nearby communities: two in Airport Drive, one in Duquesne and one in the Webb City industrial park.
During storm season, the sirens are tested at 10 a.m. each Monday.


Siren policy

Keith Stammer, Joplin-Jasper County emergency management coordinator, said tone-alert monitors and outdoor warning sirens in Joplin will be activated when the National Weather Service:
n Identifies a storm with a track that includes the city of Joplin that is producing sustained winds of 75 mph or greater.
n Issues a tornado warning for a storm with a track that includes the city of Joplin. The sirens will be activated on the report of a trained spotter even if Jasper County has not been placed under a tornado warning.

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