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retiredmich
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In any given County when they do a Tornado siren test, why do they do a 3 minute test, why not a 1 minute test ? & then they do another 3 minute test, what's that for ?
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I think your answer lies within the pole mounted siren control box. Some decoders/timers are modem and programmable, some are still older vintage mechanical timed units with less flexibility.
Personally, I like the mechanical timed units. They don't go "pop" as easily when 1.21 Gigawatts pays a visit
Some modern systems that are data controlled can do many fancy things such as silent growl tests. Old Federal Signal mechanical timers just have a motor, some gears and limit switches. Easy to work on.
Personally, I like the mechanical timed units. They don't go "pop" as easily when 1.21 Gigawatts pays a visit
Some modern systems that are data controlled can do many fancy things such as silent growl tests. Old Federal Signal mechanical timers just have a motor, some gears and limit switches. Easy to work on.
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retiredmich
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Ok ! , BUT, with in that control box some one had to set it for 3 minutes right ? but why 3 minutes , is that a standard # ?
dgruver911
Member
I don't think there is a standard, it's just whatever the city and /or the vendor agree on. We have some that are 3, and some that are 5 minutes for a test. When the real thing happens, some blow for 5 minutes, some blow for 7. As to your question about why not just a minute, my assumption would be that is too short to notice any issues if you are listening to that many sirens to tell if they are operating right or not, and also to give the electronics a chance to wind up and run for a bit. You don't want to find out during the real thing that they run for a minute or 2 and then overheat or just quit. We have 15 sirens just in Newton, and probably 25-30 countywide, and hardly a weekly test goes by without at least one failing somewhere. There are a lot of parts to go wrong on those monsters. Multiple amplifiers, speakers, power supplies, backup batteries, radio receiver, electronics, etc etc. That's why we test them weekly.
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retiredmich
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Thank you very much for the info, I appreciate it. I remember when I was on the local FD ( years back )& when we had a Tornado Warning for the City, we had to hold down the handle that activated the fire siren for 3 minutes. I was just curious about the time frame. Thanks again, have a safe 4 th
And now the city of Nickerson gets to figure out what went wrong with their sirens during the recent tornado. Apparently the automatic system failed and so did the manual backup. Someone's head is probably gonna roll. I'd sure like to know when it was last tested.
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retiredmich
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And they claim they tested it a few days be for the Tornado hit & they were working, some thing went wrong.
Couple years ago a tornado hit the south end of Russell while the power was out.. Three of the sirens are battery-backed, and not a single one of them sounded. Like Nickerson, they all passed testing not more than a few days prior. Needless to say it was a hot topic at the next council meeting..
I remember hearing about that... Scary deal. The tornado down here yielded plenty of cool pictures but the sirens not working where they needed to had a lot of people on edge.
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Yeah it was a particularly big deal here because A: it wiped out two houses and put a woman in the hospital, and B: they had just made a big deal about hiking our electric rates several months earlier because it was to pay for upgrades to the power plant to ensure we could generate our own power if the interconnects with Hays and Great Bend were knocked out. Well the upgrades were completed, and those storms knocked out the interconnects, and the power plant never went online.. We had no power for like 15 hours.
However in light of these situations, it does need to be said over and over that tornado sirens are OUTDOOR WARNING DEVICES. They are NOT designed to be a resident's only means of notification, nor are they designed to be heard by residents inside their houses. Their sole design purpose is to warn people who are OUTDOORS to take cover. People need to go buy NOAA weather alert radios and use them.
Want to know the irony of our siren fumble? The woman whose house was hit - had the sirens gone off - would have taken cover in the bathtub, like she did during a warning earlier that day.. Instead she was asleep on the couch in the living room when it hit. The bathtub was found 1/4 mile away.
However in light of these situations, it does need to be said over and over that tornado sirens are OUTDOOR WARNING DEVICES. They are NOT designed to be a resident's only means of notification, nor are they designed to be heard by residents inside their houses. Their sole design purpose is to warn people who are OUTDOORS to take cover. People need to go buy NOAA weather alert radios and use them.
Want to know the irony of our siren fumble? The woman whose house was hit - had the sirens gone off - would have taken cover in the bathtub, like she did during a warning earlier that day.. Instead she was asleep on the couch in the living room when it hit. The bathtub was found 1/4 mile away.
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retiredmich
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KDOTAZ, The story your telling about the woman a sleep on her couch during the Tornado, did she live through it being her tub was a 1/2 mile away ?
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