It appears that my outdoor warning siren legislation is starting to get some more attention from the media as well as local EM directors and local governments now, as it is hopefully going to get consideration in the next week or two of the legislative session.
I thought I’d take a moment to address some concerns about this bill. As I expected, a lot of people in charge of outdoor warning sirens are worried about the changes this bill would create, should it become law.
First of all, this bill does not add large monetary expenses to the budgets of local governments. The only hardware requirement mentioned in the bill is some way for the local governments to receive weather warnings directly from the NWS. This can be done for as little as $30 with a NOAA weather radio purchased from Kroger, Walmart, Radio Shack, or any number of other outlets. Every household in the state should already have one of these anyhow, and every dispatch center probably already does. There is no expensive burden placed upon the local governments to meet this provision of the bill. The other aspect of the bill is training people. We’re not talking about a week of classes here. We’re talking about making sure that the person in charge of pushing the button and turning on the sirens knows the difference between a watch and a warning. This is simple to teach people and working together with state EM and the NWS we can get this done for very low cost to the budgets of local governments. Again, this is not going to be a huge burden on cities or counties. This is something that should have already been done anyhow.
Second, the reason for the continuous tone requirement is that it is much more logical to the general public and it reduces confusion. In 2011, Joplin, MO was devastated by a large tornado. Over 120 people lost their lives. A study was done afterward to explore where things could have been improved to save more lives. One of the key things they discovered is that citizens reported being confused by the signals they were getting from the sirens. The method of sounding the sirens, stopping them, then sounding them again for the “all clear” is EXTREMELY confusing and common folks don’t know whether all the tones they hear mean the danger is ongoing or over with. It is much more logical to turn the sirens on…and leave them on. When the NWS cancels the warning, then the sirens stop. Hear a siren = there is a threat. Don’t hear the siren = threat is over. Much better way to do it. Makes more sense. I have no idea why it isn’t already done this way in Kentucky.
Third, I’ve heard that some EM directors don’t like the sirens and say they are antiquated and are beyond their era of usefulness. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Even in 2013, we’ve got people outside at sports events, county fairs, truck pulls, little league baseball games, farming, working construction jobs, mowing the yard, fishing, boating, hiking, hunting, etc. etc. LOTS of reasons why people still spend time outdoors in the beautiful state of Kentucky. These people NEED a reliable form of weather warning when they are outdoors. Not everybody has a smartphone in their pockets with a weather app. loaded. The sirens are critical for the safety of these people.
There are other states that already have this legislation on the books. KY is lagging behind. We need to protect our citizens from severe weather by passing House Bill 93. It will standardize the use of the sirens. It will reduce false alarms. It will give more credibility to the warnings people receive. It will put the sirens on the same level of warning as radio, TV, smartphone, and internet warnings by making the NWS the sole authority to emit the warning to the people.
I realize that not every county and not every city is covered by sirens. That’s fine for now. We can work toward fixing that as the years go by. The ONLY thing this bill does is regulate the use of existing sirens. This does not force any local government to go out and purchase sirens immediately. But we’ve got to start somewhere.
I know personally of at least two instances in Franklin County in 2012 where the sirens were sounded and no warnings were in effect for the county. The NWS didn’t even know why the sirens should be sounding. So thousands of people were wondering what’s going on and there was no threat. THIS MUST STOP. We don’t want to contribute to people ignoring weather warnings…we want to give people a reason to take them seriously.
If you have any questions about HB 93, shoot me an e-mail at storm_spotter@hotmail.com. Spring is around the corner…please call your Representative and tell them you support HB 93.
Shawn
I understand what you are saying here. But I have at least 2 issue.
ReplyDeleteI personally SAW a tornado here some years back (maybe 7 or so) and you could see the tops spun out of trees and a relative of mine who is a meteorologist himself from out of state was here visiting and asked when we had the tornado. Well, the local NWS never put out a warning only a watch and when the person came to see the damage they told me and my neighbors that it was not a tornado.
That brings up another issue. As long as this thing allows for any local, trained official to sound the alarm with confirmation, say another official saw the thing, that is fine. If this says that the NWS has to issue the warning and siren call solely then I am concerned. They have missed things here before and have a few times issues warnings to late to make a difference.
I agree some things need to be done to regulate the sirens but I just hope that someone local would not be afraid to sound the siren if something is spotted before the NWS here puts something more than a watch out. Of course they are people as well and nobody is perfect so I am not trying to talk down about them as they do their best I am sure.
I will call and support HB 93.
I understand your concerns, but if people are seeing tornadoes they need to be passing this information along immediately to the NWS and/or local dispatch. If the spotters in the field hold up their end of the deal, the NWS will almost never miss these events and it'll make a better system for everyone.
DeleteRight now, when you hear a siren you don't know if there is a tornado warning for your location or not. Right? There's simply no way to know until you go find a TV, radio, etc. to see. But under this bill, you WOULD know. Anytime you hear a siren you would have confidence in what it means finally. Kentucky has needed this for years. Thanks for your thoughts.
Sounds like its just a training issue in Franklin county, what about the tornadoess that NOAA misses and are verified by local ground spotters ? under this bill no activation would be made. This will cost lives and injuries.
ReplyDeleteThat's what spotters are for. The NWS offices maintain a network of weather spotters in every county. Up until last year they were also training them on an annual basis. So anytime there is a tornado, the spotters relay that info. to the NWS. The NWS in turn issues the warning. And THEN the information is rebroadcast. This bill would make the sirens sound at the same time that ALL the other forms of warning already sound. It would not cost lives, it would save them by giving credibility to a system that desperately needs it.
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