HANCOCK COUNTY — The idea was to make sure all residents in Hancock County can hear a tornado siren. Now, almost everyone can.
Officials from the Hancock County Emergency Management Agency have spent the past year and a half increasing siren coverage to 97 percent of the county. Previously, only 45 percent of the county was within earshot of a siren. The county spent $500,000 to upgrade its warning system, and it officially went online Friday.
The investment increased the number of sirens to 48 from 26. The project also included new software and upgrades to old, outdated sirens. The project was spearheaded by Misty Moore, the county’s emergency management director, who realized the need for a better system shortly after she was hired in 2014.
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“This is a huge relief for us because now we know we are doing everything we can to keep the people in our county safe,” Moore said.
Until the upgrades, Moore said, emergency responders didn’t have a way of knowing which sirens were working without sitting directly underneath them. That meant that it was virtually impossible to know how much of the county’s 307 square miles was actually getting siren coverage.
Moore and emergency management officials studied the issue before she proposed a new siren project to county officials in 2017. With the project completed — just in time for summer weather — county officials feel the system is in line with other county public safety measures.
“We’re now towards the top in the state as far as technology and the way of communicating with people and keeping them safe,” Moore said.
Greg Duda, public information officer for emergency management and the 911 center, noted the new tornado siren system is a good supplement to go along with other safety measures people need to use to stay safe. Those include weather radios; Smart911 phone warnings; and alerts on social media. The redundant means of communication, letting people know severe weather is coming, is important, officials said.
“The sirens are just another layer,” Moore said.
Keith Conklin, the manufacturing representative from the county’s contractor, Federal Signal, said the software program purchased by county officials state of the art. It has a larger range coverage, a longer battery life and a communication mechanism to tell officials if something is wrong with the siren.
With the old system, emergency management officials had to be at the Emergency Operations Center on Franklin Street to activate tornado warnings and set off the sirens. Now, Moore can now send out alerts from her phone.
Moore has only had to activate the tornado siren warning once in the five years she’s been the head of emergency management, she said, but officials know it only takes one tornado to devastate a community.
Jeff Rasche, chief of the Greenfield Police Department; and Jimmy Roberts, Greenfield Fire Territory chief, were two of the first-repsonders on hand Friday to check out the new system. They noted a protocol is in place for when Moore will activate the system.
“The system is kind of like issuing an Amber Alert — you just don’t want to randomly use it,” Rasche said, referring to the emergency response system that issues alerts about missing children. “The community needs to know if they hear it, it’s the real deal and they need to be taking action.”
Rasche also wanted to remind residents that during severe weather, they should only call the county’s 911 center to report emergencies. It is not a good idea to call merely to seek information about a storm. Operators in the 911 center are bombarded with tasks during severe weather, Rasche said, and they must remain attentive to emergency response. He wants to encourage people to get information from their smartphones, radios and official county social media feeds.
And now, the sirens will be a dependable way of issuing warnings as well.
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$500,000 — Cost of the new system, funded entirely by the county
97 — percentage of the county now covered by sirens. That’s up from 45 percent before new sirens were installed.
48 — Number of sirens now online, up from 26.
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Before-and-after maps of tornado siren coverage can be found with the online version of this story at www.greenfieldreporter.com
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