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Tornado sirens tested after malfunction

EMA director says county doesn’t qualify for federal aid

HOWLAND — Several of the township’s nine tornado sirens failed to sound during Sunday’s stormy weather, which produced two confirmed tornadoes in the county.

In a test Friday morning, four of the sirens, which are about 20 years old, successfully sounded, while the other five — four of which already had been on a repair list waiting for backordered replacement parts — did not, according to Trumbull County 911 Director Ernie Cook.

Fire Chief James Pantalone said he and Cook are working to figure out what caused the sirens to malfunction, but it may have been related to a radio communications problem.

“Sirens all work off of radio communications,” Pantalone said. “You get storms, lord only knows what can happen.”

In neighboring Warren, which sets off its own sirens, a frequency issue caused some of the city’s sirens to malfunction Sunday as well, Cook said.

Two EF-1 tornadoes with winds reaching 95 to 100 mph touched down in Trumbull County during Sunday’s severe weather, according the the National Weather Service in Cleveland. One started in Southington and traveled more than 13 miles before lifting in Warren. A second began east of Vienna, north of state Route 82, and traveled almost six miles across Brookfield in five minutes.

Cook said after confusion regarding the operation of sirens during the unexpected Jan. 8 tornado touchdown near Mosquito Lake in Cortland, the 911 Center in Howland set up a committee to inventory the sirens in the county. The team, aided by the Trumbull County Emergency Management Agency (EMA), catalogued 90 sirens across the county, some of which date back to the 1950s and 60s.

“We found sirens we didn’t know existed,” Cook said.

Of the 90, Cook said the dispatching center can remotely determine whether 23 sirens are working, and it depends on local jurisdictions and monthly tests to tell the center when the others are malfunctioning.

“We highly recommend that when we do our test on the first Saturday of the month, local jurisdictions send someone out to verify if they’re working,” Cook said.

He said the county sirens are broken down into tiers — tier one are the 23 purchased with an EMA grant, which sends a signal back to dispatch to indicate they’re working. Tier two sirens, like those in Howland, are set off by dispatch, but do not send a signal back. About 30 tier 3 sirens are set off by local jurisdictions in Warren, Niles and Girard, and work independently from the dispatch center, he said.

“It’s kind of a patchwork system,” Cook said.

Cook said although dispatch sets off many of the sirens, it does not own or maintain them. He urged residents to let dispatch know when sirens aren’t working, so they can notify local jurisdictions and get the problem fixed.

“That’s why we test,” he said.

Pantalone said with the unpredictable weather this year, it’s important people stay tuned to changing conditions and notifications.

“We want to encourage people not to just depend on the sirens,” he said, noting everyone should make sure cellphone notifications are set properly.

Linda Beil, director of the Trumbull County EMA said sirens are meant to notify people who are outside during a tornado to get inside. If it’s impossible to get inside, Beil said lying down in a ditch or flat on the ground is the best course of action.

The EMA works with local fire chiefs when tornadoes touch down to assess damage, Beil said. She said because less than 25 homes were seriously damaged during Sunday’s tornadoes, the area doesn’t meet the criteria for federal aid.

avugrincic@tribtoday.com

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