Recent Severe Weather has drummed up questions about the Storm Siren system in Des Moines County.
Those questions arose following three severe weather systems that moved through Southeast Iowa this week. The storm sirens only sounded for the storm that occurred on Saturday.
Des Moines County Emergency Management Coordinator Gina Hardin says that the situations under which the storm sirens will sound are very specific, and unless a storm reaches that threshold, they won’t sound.
“We activate the sirens in the event that there are 70 mile and hour winds during a thunderstorm, a tornado, or golf ball sized hail. We see those as life threatening situations, and that’s when we activate the siren,” Hardin told KBUR.
The threats are determined either when the National Weather Service issues an alert or if they recieve information for a law enforcement or emergency official indicating the threat.
Des Moines County has 12 separate storm sirens, all of which, with the exception of the sirens in Danville, are triggered by DESCOM emergency dispatch.
The sirens aren’t foolproof. Sirens in Des Moines County are linked in to the electrical grid and do not have battery backups…so when the power goes out, so do the storm sirens.
Hardin says the sirens primary focus is to warn people who are outside to get indoors, not necessarily to warn those inside to take cover. Those inside should tune to local media outlets or listen to weather radio for their weather information.
“If you’re indoors, with the way houses are built now…you can live close to a siren and not hear it. If you’re watching TV, your air conditioner’s on, or you’re running the vacuum, you aren’t going to hear it,” Hardin said.
“All Clear” signals do not sound from the warning sirens. They fire in two minute long bursts with five minutes in between those bursts.
For more information about the storm siren system, vist dmcounty.com, online.
