Tornado Siren Info

Tornado season is upon us and I thought it would be relevant to explain how our tornado sirens in German Township function.

Throughout the United States cities and counties, for the most part, activate their sirens through their communication centers. When the weather service issues a tornado warning the 911 center will activate the sirens. This process works well. However, when the 911 center is inundated with emergency calls there may be a delay in activation of the sirens.

When we set up the sirens in German Township we decided to have the sirens activated when the weather service sets there tones off for weather radios. This speeds up the process and we are notified as soon as the weather service detects a tornado visually or on radar.

German Township and Madison Township tornado sirens were the only two tornado sirens that were activated several years ago when Clark County was under a tornado warning. This tornado traveled from Miami County through German Township and lifted out east of the reservoir.

All three of our tornado sirens are inspected to assure proper function twice a year; once in the spring and once in the fall. Two of these sirens are powered by solar energy. The siren at the fire station in Lawrenceville is on electricity that is backed up with a generator.

It is our hope to add two additional sirens to the township when money becomes available or a grant can be found.

Other details of interest:

When the weather service issues a warning it is issued for the entire county. So if a tornado is detected on the east side of the county, tornado sirens are activated throughout Clark County.

Tornado Sirens are electrical/mechanical devices that can fail. This is why we have the sirens checked twice a year.

The Weather Service states on their website that Tornado Sirens are intended to warn people that are outside, not those inside homes.

It is highly recommended by the Weather Service to have a weather alert radio in all homes.

The location of our sirens are Northwestern Schools, Tremont City and behind the fire station in Lawrenceville.