Mayor wants better system than hand-operated tornado siren
October 25, 2019
With a tornado bearing down on the small Missouri town of Sparta, the lone warning siren stayed silent because a downed tree kept the mayor from getting downtown to flip the switch that activates it.
Most tornado sirens are activated remotely by computer, but not Sparta's. The old siren is hand-operated from a tiny building that once housed City Hall. Only the mayor is authorized to set it off.
So when Mayor Jenni Davis got a cellphone alert just after 1 a.m. Monday that a twister was heading straight for Sparta, she was about to jump in her car. It was no use. A large tree blocked the street...
For access to this article please
sign in or
subscribe.
Reader Comments(0)