During Monday’s storm in which an EF-1 tornado touched down in Van Wert County, some Delphos residents questioned why they did not hear the sirens. Though they were activated by the fire department, those who were indoors at the time may not have heard them.
“These sirens’ intended purpose is not to alert those people in their homes or wake them up from their sleep. With advancement in today’s home construction, hearing outdoor warning sirens can be very difficult,” said Putnam County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Steven Odenweller.
The recent storm, which bombarded Putnam County, moved into the region from Van Wert.
Van Wert County HS/EMA Director Rick McCoy agrees sirens are not intended to offer indoor warning but rather to inspire those outside to go inside for shelter and to get more information.
Though Delphos officials have autonomy concerning sirens, McCoy has no official authority to activate them. However, because he has a meteorlogical background, he does not wait for others to tell him what needs done. He can monitor weather patterns himself.
“Only the National Weather Service has the authority to issue warnings. An EMA director has authority over every siren in his county and each political subdivision also has control over their sirens. Let’s say there is no tornado warning issued by the weather service or they don’t have time to issue one after a spotter sees a tornado. They have to get this information to the weather service and they have to generate a warning. Let’s say that takes two minutes. Well, that’s not quick enough, so a community, its county’s EMA director or even the fire chief can activate their sirens,” he explained.
Delphos Fire and Rescue Platoon Chief Don Moreo said the storm came in too fast Friday.
“We got the call for spotters to go out and then the storm was here. There was no time to sound the sirens,” he said.
Sirens are activated in case of various emergencies, not just in the case of a tornado. However, as this was the case Monday, McCoy describes how events unfolded.
“The weather service draws a polygon box that’s just in the area they think tornadic activity could occur within; that’s what happened Monday night. There was a tornado forming southeast of Van Wert, so they drew the box. I put out a statement to activate sirens in Middle Point, Elgin and Venedocia. Then, I called Delphos and advised them to activate their sirens,” he said. “Now, I’m not responsible for Delphos — even the Van Wert County side. There’s an agreement between Delphos City Council and the Allen County Commissioners that Delphos goes with the Allen County EMA but there’s no problem with me advising Delphos; I just can’t set their sirens off.”
Allen County HS/EMA Director Russ Decker said he will only advise communities to sound the alarm if Allen County is under a warning from the NWS. If severe weather is moving east from Van Wert but Allen County is not under a tornado warning, he will not turn on the sirens.
“Our policy is that sirens in Allen County don’t activate unless Allen County is under a tornado warning. The exception would be the City of Delphos because it’s in two counties. The police and fire departments have the option to activate the sirens in Delphos on their own,” he said. “People need to take some accountability for their own protection. They need to be monitoring — if it looks stormy, they need to be monitoring the radio, the weather channel on TV; they need to take some responsibility for their own protection. I don’t think it’s government’s job to hold everybody’s hand every minute of the day.
“The sirens are not going to be activated — point blank — unless there is a tornado warning or some other life-threatening situation. We’re not going to sound them for every thunderstorm. It’s not going to happen.”
Decker says whenever there is a tornado, there are always going to be those who have no warning because they are under the twister’s formation.
“The average warning time across the country is about 12 minutes. But regardless of where the tornado develops or is spotted, that area got zero warning because we don’t issue warnings until you have a Doplar-indicated or visually-confirmed tornado,” he said.
For many reasons, McCoy has a sense of urgency that others do not have when severe weather hits.
“I activate on every watch. A lot of EMA directors in Ohio don’t do that but I do and I track the storm; it helps me having a meteorological background. If people want to listen to me on the scanner, I’m at 155.805 and they’ll hear all of my statements on where storms are in Indiana, when they’re coming here and what’s going on,” he continued.
McCoy stresses it is very important for residents to purchase a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radio. These devices will alert listeners of weather emergencies and may be purchased at many retail stores.
He also says the weather service has been concerned all week about atmospheric conditions expected during Friday’s Relay for Life.
“The weather service started talking to us about it Monday; that they were already concerned about Friday. Tuesday, they actually put out a statement on it. I’ve never seen it come out three days ahead like that. It’s usually two days ahead, so they’re real concerned about it,” he added. “We have a lot of Gulf moisture coming in and it’s going to be very hot with this cold front coming in. The low pressure system is going to be across Michigan and the cold front will stretch from here clear to Oklahoma.
“Up here is where things are going to get really interesting.”