🚀 go-pugleaf

It appears I have only seen a part of this thread, so forgive me if I plow
old ground.  The siren issue is not simple, but it's a good example of
what severe weather preparedness really is about.

If a community even HAS sirens, this implies something about the history
of the community ... either it's been hit in the past, or it got sirens as
part of Civil Defense and they're just sort of still around, or they had a
"sirens champion" in the community in the past, or ... .  Communities that
have no sirens, either by conscious choice, or lack of funds, or whatever,
also have a history.  The current community leaders may know nothing at
all about that history, or they may have been on one side or another in
the debate about the need for sirens.  Sirens don't just sit around and
wait for an event ... they need maintenance, updating from time to time as
technologies evolve, strategies have to be mapped out about how and when
they're to be used, someone has to be designated to be responsible for
their effective use, etc.

Towns that get bombed by a tornado and survive in some form usually put up
sirens, and go through preparedness planning AFTER that event  ... see:

<http://www.wildstar.net/~doswell/Tornado_essay.html>

Obvious, such would not be a shining example of preparedness.  Given that
sirens exist in a community, however, does not make them a panacea for the
tornado problem .. in today's world, a multifaceted process is needed to
get a warning out to as many people as possible.  Each community has to
consider its own unique situation to decide how best to serve the need for
tornado preparedness, assuming that they have accepted that such a need
actually exists.

Given the relatively low probability that a tornado will hit a community,
a possible option is to not prepare at all ... no sirens, no tornado
drills, no spotters.  Of course, in the unlikely event that a tornado DOES
hit the town, the "leaders" in the community will have to live the
realization that their lack of vision was directly responsible for some
fraction of the death toll, and the community will have to recognize that
its lack of concern for its own safety is a primary factor in the
subsequent events.

Sirens can and will reach a substantial portion of the population, but
"Tornado Drills" are a mandatory part of making that successful.   As some
have noted, if the POLICE don't know what the sirens mean, then it
probably is not going to be a successful effort.  The public HAS to be a
player in preparedness planning if it is to work ... if the public is not
involved all along, the system won't work, and a lot of recriminations
will follow a major tornado hit.  I don't trust ANY preparedness plan that
doesn't include big chunks of community-wide involvement.  If funds for
sirens and all other aspects of tornado preparedness are to be approved,
the community has to accept the need for such things.

   Chuck Doswell

-- 
Dr. Charles A. Doswell III     NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory
          1313 Halley Circle, Norman, Oklahoma  73069
phone: (405) 366-0439  fax: (405) 366-0472 <doswell@nssl.noaa.gov>
     WWW home page: <http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/~doswell>
Standard disclaimer ... my views are my own, so don't blame my employer.

          ...Structure is the key to understanding...