Commission addresses concerns about storm sirens
- Charlene Sims, Journal staff
- Apr 23
- 7 min read
By Charlene Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY – City officials in Prescott, Linn Valley and La Cygne received blowback after storm warning sirens in those communities did not go off during the thunderstorms on April 13 that spawned not one but two tornadoes over Blue Mound.
While one of the storms apparently dissipated without causing much harm, the other one first touched down around 300 and Farris roads, “bouncing” along a path across the southern portion of Linn County. The path of the tornado took an eastward path until it was southwest of the Sugar Valley Lakes development.
From there its angled northwest, ripping docks and boats from their moorings and leveling a mobile home before it crossed farmland, narrowly missing at least two houses, and exited the county after nearly hitting another house near 1100 and State Line roads.
In the La Cygne City Council meeting on Wednesday, April 15, city Fire Chief Dan Nasalroad said he fielded complaints about the siren not sounding, but he pointed out that the tornado was about 20 miles to the south of La Cygne and the city, while it was under a tornado watch, was not in any danger of being struck by that tornado.
Both the Linn County tornado and the cell that ripped through Miami County that night seemed to have developed into full-blown twisters just as they reached those two counties. There are reports that the National Weather Service has come under fire for failing to recognize the potential danger of the storm and issue warnings.
Linn County Sheriff James Akes, in an interview on April 13 after the tornado had passed, said that Linn County officials received notification from Allen County authorities that cells with tornado-producing power were headed toward Linn County. However, it wasn’t until the storm was on top of Blue Mound that the rotation began.
Akes said that there was a momentary glitch in activating the storm siren in Mound City, but it only caused a 15- to 20-second delay.
At the Linn County Commission meeting on Monday, April 20, Linn County Fire Chief Randy Hegwald answered questions from commissioners about the weather sirens.
Hegwald told the commissioners that the county owned only one storm siren in the county and that is the one located in Centerville. The other storm sirens in the county are owned by the cities. The cities maintain and operate them. Hegwald said that the cities give the county permission to set off the sirens as needed.
Hegwald explained that storm sirens will run three to five minutes and shut themselves off. That is a safety feature because they work with amplifiers and if they go longer than that, they will burn themselves out and not be operational.
He said they also work on a 12-volt system. Because of that sirens can only go off three to five times based on the battery capacity.
“Those are outdoor warning sirens,” he said. “It’s urged to have that second notification system.The outdoor sirens are for the people driving outside, doing mowing, and stuff like that.”
The sirens can usually be heard in nearby homes and businesses, even in areas outside city limits given proper weather conditions. However, the hillside south of Mound City and the turbulence of the storm likely prevented the warning from reaching the Sugar Valley Lakes development.
Hegwald added, "With today's technology, we need to put something on phones where you get notified through social media and stuff like that. We are part of the Everbridge system, that is the part of the Everbridge system that you get those warnings. You can sign up for that. I put a QR code on our Facebook page. If you have any issues with that, please call us or stop by our office. We'll assist you in getting that set up on your phone.
“Another way to get storm notifications is a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather radio. It will sit there plugged in. Nothing happens until that weather service puts a warning out. You’re lucky enough to have one of those towers close to our county, and so it works very well in our county.”
Hegwald asked that the public give responders and the people trying to get out of their houses and assess their own damage, to give them a little space.
“We did block some roads off the other night to prevent the parade of cars coming by, but it’s more of a safety issue,” Hegwald said. “Because a storm like that, we have power lines down, you have low hanging lines, you have first responders out and about. So just remember those are your neighbors. Give them that space. Give the first responder space to their job.”
Commission Chair Alison Hamilton asked asked, “So we have one siren and what you’re saying is, well, clarify this for me. Are you the one and solely the one in charge of setting off the sirens for all of the surrounding cities that have sirens?”
Hegwald answered, “No, they are their sirens. They can set them off.”
“Themselves?” asked Hamilton. “I want to clarify that. So, if Prescott wanted to set their siren off, they don’t need to wait for emergency management. Now, if you had a recommendation to set Prescott off, you could do what?”
“If we see something, and we think they’re in danger, we go through dispatch,” Hegwald replied. “Dispatch has the ability to set those sirens off remotely, we do it over the radio to dispatch.
“If I see something – and any storm spotter can do this – they do it over the fire frequency. ‘Hey, Blue Mound,’ like the other night, ‘Hey, please set off the Blue Mound sirens. We have a tornado on the ground southwest of Blue Mound.’
“So every first responder, every fire chief, every firefighter, every EMS, every police officer in the county can hear that. They all have that frequency. It’s all listed out over that. They can hear it. They will hear us say, ‘Hey, turn this siren on.’”
“But that usually comes from you. But you’re saying a storm spotter can do that?” asked Hamilton.
“The storm spotters I’m referring to are rural firefighters,” Hegwald said.
“So the mayor of Prescott is wanting that to go off,” asked Hamilton.
Hegwald said that the mayor could do it.
“But they have to call dispatch,” said Hamilton.
Hegwald said no, the mayor can set it off.
Hamilton said, “I’m just trying to figure out what the confusion was, because maybe they are under the impression that you’re the one that does that for them.”
“No, I spoke to Prescott last week,” he said. “With elections and changing officials, they did not know that was their siren. They thought it was the county’s. They did not realize they own that siren. And so I think that maybe some of the confusion was new people coming into new positions.
“They did not realize this is the city siren, that they own that, they maintain it. So, from talking to them, I can tell you that their deal was they didn’t realize they could set it off anytime, it’s their siren.”
“But you can also call dispatch, and dispatch at Linn County can do it as well?” Hamilton asked.
“The reason I do it over the dispatch is that way everybody with that frequency hears it,” Hegwald said. “Whether their sitting in Pleasanton or sitting in La Cygne, they hear, ‘Hey, we have a tornado here.’ They’re asking for this siren to go off, so they know why that siren is going off.
“Before, there were trucks that could set it off with their own radio. There were firefighters that had handhelds. They could set it off and never notify anybody. They could set that siren off in Blue Mound and dispatch.
“None of the officers knew it was going off because they didn’t broadcast it. They could just push a button on their radio and set it off. So, with my staff, if they’re out, they see something, it is asked through dispatch to set that siren off so everybody knows, this is why it’s going off.”
Hegwald said that he had talked with Linn Valley officials who had been asked why their sirens had not gone off and those officials told people that those storms were 20 miles from them and they were not in danger, so it wasn’t set off.
“So, it’s your discretion, but it is also up to the cities,” said Hamilton. “The only issue I see with that is the communication, part of that with the county and the municipalities. They should know all of that. She should have known, and we maybe should have a meeting, if we could, together with those communities that own those sirens. If they don’t know that, if they’re used to you setting that off for them and there was disagreement on if it should be on or off.”
“So, like I said, it’s their siren, I can’t just say you shouldn’t have set that off,” said Hegwald.
“That’s part of the emergency management plan within the county that we’re still working on. That should be, is that a part of that where we’re communicating with municipalities and having a plan?” asked Hamilton.
Hegwald said it was.
“I also don’t like how on Facebook they’ll ask questions for shelter and we as a county do not give answers,” said Hamilton. “Even if it’s Bunker Hill is the only county location that we have as a shelter that has to be communicated, right? We’re leaving people without answers.”
Hamilton asked if the fire department staff had come together to have any sort of after action review of the tornado.
Hegwald said he was going to try to do that this week .
“I would like to have something brought in here to the commission with Sheriff Akes and Amanda (Snyder, Linn County Health Department director) and Linda (Simons, emergency management) everyone coming in here because as the commission, when an emergency like that happens, we had zero communication. We can’t communicate with each other. And I got with Jesse (Walton, Public Works Administrator),” said Hamilton.
“We kind of went out and looked at things, but there has to be something I feel like in place where we are taking care of the citizens and we’re just in the dark on everything. We have no idea. We get the complaints. We get the calls, where were you setting up, clean up.
“I mean, if this was fatalities involved as the commission and in charge of public safety, we had no idea what was going on and I don’t like that. And so I would like to bring in the sheriff and Amanda and all those that are in charge of our emergency action plans. I mean just a quick email. American Red Cross is where? We have no idea.”
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