Siren shift alarms many
Staff writer
Last week’s sirens still are confusing residents in Marion and the surrounding area.
During storms that raged June 9, sirens throughout town were triggered automatically when the National Weather Service issued warnings based on radar signals indicating a destructive thunderstorm.
Many were left wondering why the sirens sounded despite no presence of a tornado, and no issued tornado warning.
At Monday’s city council meeting, the warning’s meaning and how better to inform citizens when a weather threat is imminent was discussed.
“I’m concerned because what we’ve been doing, I think, is confusing,” Mayor Michael Powers said. “If you’re sitting in your basement and the siren goes off, and then it quits. And then a little bit later, it comes back on again, and then goes and then it quits. That’s what we’ve had happen.”
According to an outdated notice still on the city’s website, a five-minute siren indicates a tornado warning while a subsequent one-minute siren is an all-clear. But that’s not what the sirens last week meant.
The sirens, according to city administrator Brian Wells, are triggered when a tornado warning is issued — including funnel clouds and significant rotation on the radar — or when a storm is expected to bring baseball-sized hail or winds greater than or equal to 80 mph, which would qualify it to be classified as a destructive thunderstorm.
Multiple siren blasts were the result of multiple different warnings as conditions of the storm changed. There is no “all-clear” siren under the new system.
The sirens triggered for around four minutes June 9 before stopping and starting numerous more times as the storm changed shape and direction.
Wells said automatic activation could be turned off and sirens can be sounded manually. He, police chief Aaron Slater, and assistant chief Dustin Woodford would have the authority to sound them manually.
Wells also said standards for activation could be changed to limit them to tornado warnings not including destructive thunderstorm warnings.
“If there’s going to be straight-line winds, like what Salina had, I think the sirens should go off,” Slater said.
During the same storm system, Salina reported wind speeds of up to 110 mph.
“Growing up in Kansas, tornado sirens have always been tornado sirens,” Slater said. “Now, the winds, that’s not necessarily a tornado. But depending on how high the straight-line winds are, it could be just as destructive.”
A conclusion wasn’t reached about the best way to inform citizens of an imminent weather threat.
Notifications are sent to residents’ phones who register at city hall, and updates are posted on social media.
But during a weather threat like the one on June 9, not everyone will have time to check their phones and social media before seeking shelter.
“I’m not going to get online real quick and see what’s going on,” Councilwoman Amy Smith said. “I’m herding children down into the basement because they’re probably panicked.”