Bremen residents want to know why sirens weren't activated during tornado warning
BREMEN, Ind. -- Nearly six days after a tornado touched down in Marshall County people living in one community are still wanting to know why they didn’t hear sirens.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF0 tornado touched down just southwest of Bremen Friday afternoon.
Sections of corn are still blown over on County Road 6B and a tree remains snapped on its side along Ironwood Road.
ABC57 First Warning Neighborhood Weather Chief Meteorologist Tom Coomes was live on the air as the Tornado Warning was issued.
"If you’re watching right now anywhere in the Bremen area --get to your safe spot now," Coomes told viewers.
But in Bremen the sirens sat silent, according to residents.
Ashley Sumpter runs a day care out of her Bremen home and was getting ready to lay the kids down for nap time when the storms moved in.
“Everybody was freaking out and I kept telling them -- we don’t have the sirens we’re fine," said Sumpter. "This is just a precaution to be safe just in case.”
Ashley lives just one block away from a storm siren and says it never went off.
She was just one of many people in Bremen who flooded our First Warning Neighborhood Weather Facebook page with messages asking why the sirens weren’t activated.
As ABC57 has reported, Marshall County does not have a centralized system for its tornado sirens. Each community is responsible for activating their own sirens under their own protocols. Town leaders tell ABC57, in Bremen it's up to the Fire Chief and they are only activated if a tornado is spotted.
Ahsley says, that’s a policy that needs to be changed.
“If there’s a chance I think those alarms need to be set off," said Ashley. "So people can have the proper time to get to safety, because not everyone has cell phones not everyone has smart phones."
We did reach to the chief several times for an interview, but he was not available.
People living in Bremen did confirm the tornado sirens had been tested as recently as this month.