St. Joseph County tornado sirens tested
St Joseph County's tornado sirens failed to go off when a tornado warning was issued in late February because of a glitch in the system. Those sirens were tested during the statewide tornado drill on Tuesday - successfully.
The St. Joseph County sirens failed to sound when there was severe weather on February 28.
"That system was moved over here in February. It was a brand new untested system, so it was slated to be actually tested a day after the storm went through. Since the storm came through, obviously when we set that siren off it did not launch the system," said Brent Croymans, Executive Director, St Joseph County 911 Center.
That same night Saint Joseph County public safety officials responded:
“We pulled in technicians and immediately repaired the system and successfully launched it," said Croymans.
By then, the storm had passed.
Croymans says the weather alerting siren system they have at the 911 call center is a backup option to be used when the county's Emergency Management Agency downtown is not staffed during off hours.
"The EMA is the authority figure on the weather sirens so they’re they actual owners of the system, we’re a remote location,” Croymans said.
During Tuesday's statewide drill, the sirens went off at 10 a.m. and are scheduled to go off at 7:35 p.m.
“The drill went successful this morning. It was tested just a little after 10:10 this morning. First, EMA set off the sirens at their location and it was followed by us setting it off here at the 911 center," Croymans said.
Moving forward, Croymans says he just wants to make sure everyone is on the same page.
“I asked the EMA to go back and revisit the policy based on the last tornado storm that came through. At this point in time we’re actually developing policies of who sets them off at which different times and that’s still under review," Croymans said.