Tornado Sirens: Cause For Alarm?

Henryville. Ind (WTHI) - Perry Hunter, a teacher at Henryville, Indiana High School, describes his experience as a tornado ripped through the school on March 2, 2012.

“Around 2:45, the sirens went off, and that’s usually a tornado warning. My ears popped, then they popped again. I thought, that can’t be good. About that time, the lights began to flicker. It lasted about 15 seconds. When I looked out the door, you could see light, so I knew something bad had happened.”

Sirens may have saved lives during the Henryville, Indiana tornado that March day and our area has similar sirens But sirens aren’t always an effective way of warning people during severe weather.

Dave Tucek of the National Weather Service explains, “Sirens are outdoor warning systems. They’re not meant to be heard indoors, and at $20,000 a pop for a siren, not including cost and maintenance to have the entire county saturated is beyond their cost and beyond their means.”

Whether your community has sirens or not, Perry Hunter has some good advice, “It’s not something to take lightly at all and I would definitely get to a safe spot”