Columbus is taking the chance of human error out of the equation when it comes to sounding its tornado sirens.
The city is investing $25,345 in new technology that will automatically set off local tornado sirens when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning for Bartholomew County, without the need for a human to activate them.
Columbus Board of Works members on Tuesday approved a new Central Alert Siren Activation System, to be provided through Kenwood Communications and Electronic Communication Systems Inc., Bloomington.
The automated system, working with the National Weather System and the Everbridge community warning system, will activate the sirens without any need for 911 dispatchers to assist, said Bryan Burton, director of Columbus’ Public Works department.
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If for some reason the automated system malfunctions, the dispatchers will still have the ability to set off the sirens as needed, he said.
Police or sheriff’s deputies or tornado spotters in the county may still also alert the dispatchers to set off the sirens, he said.
Eighteen tornado sirens are placed throughout the area, 14 in the city and four elsewhere in Bartholomew County, Burton said.
The need to consider an automated system came about last year when confused resulted from a delay in setting off sirens during a spring storm in 2017.
Currently, when a tornado warning is issued by the National Weather Service, the sirens are activated manually by dispatchers at the Bartholomew County 911 Emergency Operations Center.
The 2017 incident happened when a fast-moving severe spring storm barrelled across Bartholomew County and the dispatchers were deluged with hundreds of calls within minutes from people seeking assistance for blown-over trees, utility wires in the road, transformer fires and security alarms going off on buildings. As many as 500 calls were made to the center in one hour and about half of them could not be answered promptly because of the volume.
In the midst of that confusion that night during the storm, when the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning at 7:45 p.m., the sirens were not manually activated by dispatchers until 8:04 p.m.
Although an audible alarm sounds in the county 911 center that a tornado warning has been issued to alert dispatchers to start the sirens, it was possible the dispatchers were so busy with calls they did not hear it, county officials said at the time.
The automated system will be placed in the emergency operations center on Cherry Street in Columbus, Burton said. Money for the purchase is being taken out of the public works department’s 2018 budget, with installation planned for 2019.
Columbus public works employees already maintain the sirens, Burton said. Every day, his employees do a silent test of every siren to make sure it is operational. Once a month, an audible test is put out by Everbridge to make sure the sirens are working.
The new automated system will email city and county officials to let them know the operational status of any siren on the system, Burton said.
The new system will also allow Bartholomew County and city officials to monitor weather warnings in nearby counties to track a storm system’s path, which could allow local officials to be a “county ahead” when anticipating severe storms, Burton said.
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To sign up for automated alerts from Bartholomew County’s Everbridge system about approaching danger, visit the county website at bartholomew.in.gov or call 812-379-1500.
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