TOPEKA (KSNT) – A Topeka neighborhood is without a functioning tornado siren this week as county workers make arrangements for repairs.
Dusty Nichols with the Shawnee County Department of Emergency Management told 27 News that workers are set to make repairs to two local tornado sirens in the Oakland area in the coming days. He said the neighborhood’s two sirens, located at the Philip Billard Airport and the new Oakland pool, are currently not functioning.
Emergency management is waiting for special equipment, a bucket truck, to make repairs at the airport siren. Nichols said the pool siren is relatively new, but it suffered damage during the pool’s installation and its backup power supply is now empty.
“Those two sirens generate enough sound to cover that entire area,” Nichols said.
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Nichols said routine maintenance is often required to keep the sirens around the county operational and ready for severe weather events. He said testing of the sirens occurs at noon on Mondays during clear weather, with emergency management also able to run silent polls to see which ones are functioning.
The Shawnee County Department of Emergency Management will try to keep the sirens as maintained as possible. However, damage still occurs to these devices often in the form of exposure to the natural elements like wind and lightning strikes or by vandalism.
“We’ve found bullet holes in the boxes,” Nichols said.
Nichols encourages people to have alternate ways to listen for severe weather alerts and tornado warnings. He said people can get National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather radios or download phone apps to keep up to date on the latest weather information.
The Shawnee County Department of Emergency Management is scheduled to make repairs to the Oakland pool siren on Wednesday, April 22. Workers are also set to make repairs to the airport siren on Monday, April 27.
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