Tornado/Warning Siren

[mtndew21]

My community is in need of a tornado siren and I'm in need of some narratives and suggestions.

We had a old type 50 federal siren but it died over a year ago. I have some local grants that are due very shortly. I would like to replace with a modern day unit that is DC powered and that can be tripped off in the field or by our L.E.C. communication center if need be.
I've already had a demo done in our town and got 2 quotes.

[Catch22]

There is a National Weather Service grant out there that I bet someone comments on, as I know he's familiar with it. It's ran through the state and is dependant on population density. We were looking hard at it, but we have too much population within our town to pull it off it looks like. I'm going to do some more number crunching before next year to see what we can pull off. If I can dig up the info on it I'll forward it to you.

I know of a nearby department that utilized USDA Rural Development grant money to purchase one. That's likely going to be our next avenue.

What we're looking at is one that's powered by batteries and have a charging system off the pole (which sounds like what you're describing). I'm sold on those after we had 4 different tornadoes go through our area one January. The first knocked out the power to town, so we had no siren whatesoever. These things were stacked so tight we had about 30 minutes to check for injuries along the tracks and then had to go to town to warn them another was coming using the PA's on the trucks.

[mmcneill]

I’m probably the person that Catch is talking about in his post. As he said there is a grant from the NWS for Rural storm sirens. The grant is geared toward rural areas with a population density of less than 100 persons per square mile. In most states the application has to go through your state Emergency Management Agency.

Here is a link to the announcement on Grants.gov
http://www07.grants.gov/search/searc...8548&mode=VIEW

As of this morning though the Grants.gov site is showing to be down for maintenance until 2/10.

The USDA Rural Development program is the way a lot of our clients are able to install their sirens. The company that I work for with my “real job” has installed a couple of hundred sirens under the USDA program.

[mtndew21]

Thanks

I checked into the USDA grant ,but it will only pay 15% if that.

[SLY4420]

The USDA or block grants might be your best way.

As you probably are aware, they are not eligible under AFG.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

FEMA isn't buying them either under Disaster Mitigation at last look.

[OsbornFPD]

I've got one I'll give you if you're in dire need, looks like we're about a 4 hour drive from you. We replaced our old one with a FS Thunderblot a couple years ago, the old one still worked fine when we took it down.

[jam24u]

Personally, I like the way the old sirens sounded. These new long distance penetration sirens remind of those hand held airhorns that had a vasectomy.

[mmcneill]

I've got one I'll give you if you're in dire need, looks like we're about a 4 hour drive from you. We replaced our old one with a FS Thunderblot a couple years ago, the old one still worked fine when we took it down.

Hey Bud.....I'll be happy to take it off your hands. I been looking for one to add to my Civil Defense and Fire collection.

Mike

[Catch22]

I’m probably the person that Catch is talking about in his post. As he said there is a grant from the NWS for Rural storm sirens. The grant is geared toward rural areas with a population density of less than 100 persons per square mile. In most states the application has to go through your state Emergency Management Agency.

Here is a link to the announcement on Grants.gov
http://www07.grants.gov/search/searc...8548&mode=VIEW

As of this morning though the Grants.gov site is showing to be down for maintenance until 2/10.

The USDA Rural Development program is the way a lot of our clients are able to install their sirens. The company that I work for with my “real job” has installed a couple of hundred sirens under the USDA program.

You would be right, you're the one I was thinking of. Thanks for saving me having to look for the info!

If I can ever get this POS civil defense thing we've got replaced I'll see if I can't give it to you if you're interested in it.

[smokediver6102]

Fire Prevention & Safety grant when it comes up next. it says
"Weather/disaster notification devices (sirens etc.)"

[mtndew21]

I've got one I'll give you if you're in dire need, looks like we're about a 4 hour drive from you. We replaced our old one with a FS Thunderblot a couple years ago, the old one still worked fine when we took it down.

Sent you a message.

This was the towns only siren...

[OsbornFPD]

Hey Bud.....I'll be happy to take it off your hands. I been looking for one to add to my Civil Defense and Fire collection.

Mike

If mtndew doesn't end up taking it for protection we'll talk Mike

[fatman22]

I wish our county used sirens... I've asked why we could not get some sort of grant to purchase these, with the response that our area is too "hilly", it would take too many sirens to cover the area. A county to our north just replaced 21 sirens, and has the old ones sitting on a lot just gathering dust. I know that more than enough to cover our area, but you cant convince our co. govt of that..... Heres a look at what our friends to the north have taken out of service. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-VlgRdxY_8

[Catch22]

I wish our county used sirens... I've asked why we could not get some sort of grant to purchase these, with the response that our area is too "hilly", it would take too many sirens to cover the area. A county to our north just replaced 21 sirens, and has the old ones sitting on a lot just gathering dust. I know that more than enough to cover our area, but you cant convince our co. govt of that..... Heres a look at what our friends to the north have taken out of service. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-VlgRdxY_8

To be totally honest, the storm sirens have been overplayed (in my opinion) and over relied upon for storm warnings. We get complaints all the time about people not being able to hear our town's siren inside their house. They don't realize that's not it's intent; it's intended to warn those outside that are away from their TV/radio. Half the time people won't even take shelter when we sound it, rather they go outside to see what's going on.

There's been a big push around our parts for weather radios, and there's a lot more grant money out there for purchasing these as opposed to sirens. I would think this would be more in line with what the FP&S would look at.

Now, I'm not saying we should disregard the storm sirens, as they are a valuable asset. I just think there should be more of a push for the weather radios for every home and business. If you really think about it, if you take that $20K you'll spend on a siren, you can buy 500 weather radios. Depending on the make-up of your community, you might actually get to more households with the radios and rely on the sirens to warn those away from their radios.

[OsbornFPD]

To be totally honest, the storm sirens have been overplayed (in my opinion) and over relied upon for storm warnings. We get complaints all the time about people not being able to hear our town's siren inside their house. They don't realize that's not it's intent; it's intended to warn those outside that are away from their TV/radio. Half the time people won't even take shelter when we sound it, rather they go outside to see what's going on.

I've even had 'em call the firehouse and ask why the siren was going off

[mmcneill]

If mtndew doesn't end up taking it for protection we'll talk Mike

Not a problem.....I would much rather see it used by someone like mtndew for its intended purpose.

If not I can definately make room for it on a shelf in my living room........OK maybe i'll have to build a bigger shelf and knock a hole in the roof, but I know some fireman that are good at making big holes in things.

[Greenacres2]

Fire Prevention & Safety grant when it comes up next. it says
"Weather/disaster notification devices (sirens etc.)"

The warning siren has saved a lot of lives, and still continues to have a place and a purpose. That said, in today's world we spend more time inside with air conditioners instead of windows open. Weather radio project is a good idea. Isn't there software that can make mass calls to telephones also? If so i wonder if that could be an eligible item. Percentage of people reached by cell phone and weather radio should be pretty high in today's society.

earl (just thinking, which clearly shows my ignorance!!)

[Catch22]

The warning siren has saved a lot of lives, and still continues to have a place and a purpose. That said, in today's world we spend more time inside with air conditioners instead of windows open. Weather radio project is a good idea. Isn't there software that can make mass calls to telephones also? If so i wonder if that could be an eligible item. Percentage of people reached by cell phone and weather radio should be pretty high in today's society.

earl (just thinking, which clearly shows my ignorance!!)

I believe you're talking about Reverse 911 or similar options. We have that option in our county, but it's not cheap and it's not fast. When you only have a certain number of allocated phone lines for outgoing calls, they can get stacked up. The contracted services that send the calls out of another location I don't know much about, but I know there's a cost associated.

The system I'm familiar with will allow the dispatcher to draw a polygon (in some cases overlay) similar to the one the NWS has for the warning. From there, they record the message and send it.

We haven't used it for tornadoes yet and may not until we do some more cost studies for such a thing. However, we are working toward having it available for haz-mat incidents to do notifications for evacuations or shelter-in-place situations.

[onebugle]

The warning siren has saved a lot of lives, and still continues to have a place and a purpose. That said, in today's world we spend more time inside with air conditioners instead of windows open. Weather radio project is a good idea. Isn't there software that can make mass calls to telephones also? If so i wonder if that could be an eligible item. Percentage of people reached by cell phone and weather radio should be pretty high in today's society.

earl (just thinking, which clearly shows my ignorance!!)

The Town has in place a "Reverse 911" system that can contact residents by phone with a recorded message especially for emergency notifications (not sure about cell phones though).