NEW SIRENS SAVE LIVES DURING 2019 MISSOURI TORNADO
[https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210318/new-sirens-save-lives-during-2019-missouri-tornado]


Release Date: 
8월 22, 2019 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Thanks to new sirens blaring a warning message
about the approaching tornado this past May, no lives were lost in
Missouri’s Cole County and Jefferson City, the state capital.

 

In 2011 a deadly EF-5 tornado—winds more than 200 mph, top of the
Enhanced Fujita Damage Scale—took 161 lives in Joplin, MO. The
catastrophic event, which brought down nearly 7,000 homes, a hospital
and other public buildings, prompted a wave of initiatives throughout
the state to reduce risks to lives and damage to property in the path
of another disaster.

 

The county and city evaluated their emergency sirens and agreed to
replace them.

 

According to Bill Farr, Cole County’s emergency management director,
the warning sirens within Jefferson City limits needed to be upgraded
and replaced.  They were “old-style World War II civil defense
sirens.” Maintenance costs were “unbelievable” and parts for
repair were no longer available.

 

The new system with 29 sirens cost about $750,000 with each siren
averaging between $30,000 and $35,000. The project was funded by
capital improvement sales taxes. The joint Cole County-Jefferson City
siren project was completed in 2012.

 

Eerily, on May 22 this year, the eighth anniversary of the Joplin
tornado, Mother Nature tested the new emergency sirens. An EF-3
tornado, with 136-165 mph winds plowed through Cole County and
Jefferson City. Not one fatality was reported.

 

Jefferson City resident Joe Gassoway, Jr., who lives in a street
parallel to the area where the tornado touched down, said, “I heard
the second siren after hearing the wind pick up, felt my house shake,
grabbed my cat and headed toward the cellar.” A former New Orleans
resident and Hurricane Katrina survivor, Gassoway knows that weather
can wreak havoc. Trees fell on and totaled his car, but he was unhurt
— except for cat scratches.

 

Lt. David Williams, Jefferson City Police Department, noted residents
were positive about the siren warning. “After Joplin, people paid
attention. Sirens made a big difference. A digital message sent with
the siren blast indicated a tornado was on the way. Watches and
warnings from the National Weather Service feed into the Jefferson
City Police Department, the joint communications center for the city
and county.”

 

“National Weather Service warnings prompted siren blasts for 30
minutes; damage reports came into the 911 system as the tornado
passed,” he added.

 

Residents, Cole County and Jefferson City officials feel safer with
the sirens. As Williams says, “… people listened on May 22 and
they knew what to do.”

 

FEMA provides three grant programs that offer funding for eligible
mitigation planning and projects that reduce disaster losses and
protect life and property from future disaster damages: Hazard
Mitigation Grant Program, the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program, and
the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. 

 

Follow recovery updates in Missouri on Twitter @MOSEMA_
[https://twitter.com/mosema_] and @FEMARegion7
[https://twitter.com/femaregion7]. Get the latest information at
Missouri's recovery website [https://recovery.mo.gov/] and FEMA's
disaster webpage [http://www.fema.gov/Disaster/4451].

 

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