Lightning and Age, Possible Answers for Costa Tornado Siren Failure

tornado sirenSome have been questioning why one of Galesburg’s 13 tornado sirens did not sound July 16th, when heavy storms produced an EF-2 Tornado not far away in the Warren County town of Cameron.

According to Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Simkins, occasional malfunctions are fairly normal, and can happen for a number of reasons, such as a lightning strike or simply because of aging.

Simkins says sirens are polled and tested on a daily basis, and that the siren at Costa School has been polled as well as checked by maintenance crews.

Simkins tells WGIL, that the siren is in proper working condition, and likely was the day it didn’t sound.

“The day before it was working,” says Simkins. “When I looked through the history, all the rest were working. The funny thing was, later that night after the tornado went through, it was polled again and showing working. Galesburg communications does a great job at working with repairs. They have looked at the one at Costa and have it repaired already.”

Simkins says the system is fairly out of date at this point. He adds that because of the age on certain sirens, the Emergency Management Agency may try to implement new technology in the future, however, for now he says “he’s not worried” about the current system in place.

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