(Memphis) People continue to clean up in the midwest after a weekend outbreak of tornadoes.
In Woodward, Oklahoma, six people were killed.
None of the town’s outdoor tornado sirens sounded due to a lightning strike that hit the system’s tower.
Those sirens may not have made a difference due to the strength of the storms but it has local experts wondering if the public relies too much on them.
Could what happened in Woodward, happen in Shelby County?
Bob Nations, Director of the Shelby County EMA, says when it comes to severe weather anything can happen, “Lightening strikes, power failures caused by lightning strikes, power failures caused by wind damage. You have to anticipate that is going to occur.”
There are 170 warning sirens in Shelby County.
They are activated from the EMA’s dispatch center only after the National Weather
Service issues a tornado warning.
If power to the dispatch center is interrupted, the sirens could be “encoded” at Memphis City Hall, in the EMA’s emergency communications trailer and even from one of EMA’s response vehicles.
But Director Bob Nations urges the public not to become too dependent on the sirens, “If you’re within a mile of a siren, and you’re sitting indoors watching tv, most likely you’re going to hear that siren. But that siren was not intended to be your warning mechanism.”
Nations says sirens are designed to alert people outdoors of life threatening conditions.
Inside your home you can get important weather information from the TV until you lose power. That’s when a NOAA weather radio or Alert FM receiver comes in handy.
Nations says most importantly, have a safety plan, “If you know that a tornado is bearing down on you, what are your plans? What are you doing to protect yourself and to protect your family? And so I want to make clear that our message is, don’t be dependant on those sirens.”