The tornado siren system in St. Clair County, Illinois is a hodge podge network that forces communities to fend for themselves. O'Fallon is responsible for O'Fallon and Belleville takes care of Belleville. If you live in an area where you can't hear a siren then you fall into a "dead zone," which means you better count on something else.

St. Louis County, which has more than ninety municipalities, operates more than two hundred sirens for all the municipalities and unincorporated areas making it the largest system in the country activated by a single source. It certainly seems like a more efficent way to do it.

Bob Knight, the Director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, says there are dead zones in unincorporated parts of the county, but he can't identify them and insists that the county has never studied the issue. He thinks the current warning system is adequate.

Some suburban counties have even fewer sirens than St. Clair. Two years ago, KMOV's Russell Kinsaul reported that Franklin and Jefferson counties in Missouri and Madison County in Illinois had no sirens in unincorporated areas.

I rarely rely on sirens. If we know a storm is heading our way, our family will watch a local television station (KMOV, of course) or listen to a local radio station. Although we don't use a weather radio, it's an excellent source too. We also keep a battery powered light and radio, blankets and other items in our crawl space just in case we need to be there for a while.

My wife and I have identified a safer room in the center of the house for a desperation dive for safety. If we have enough time, we can go to the crawl space.

Warning sirens can help you if you're outside, but you should take responsibility for knowing if severe weather is heading your way and know what to do if it arrives, especially if you live in a dead zone.

1 Comments

Tim said:

Craig Cheatham's report this morning on KMOV was a bit absurd. He tried to act like a big league investigative reporter in his attempt to place the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency on the hot seat for warning siren dead zones. Maybe that system can be improved, but on Monday afternoon, the failure was also in the National Weather Service and local meterological services to include Mr. Cheatham's employer.

At 5:10 PM on Monday, with the ominous weather building all around, I turned on KMOX, the sister station of KMOV and there was not even a tornado WATCH issued. I didn't hear KMOX or KMOV discuss tornados until AFTER they touched down.

Mr. Cheatham, if you are looking for someone to blame for no siren warning being issued, you can start by looking in the mirror. Are you sure you want to rely on KMOV for up-to-date severe weather info?

June 10, 2009 3:08 PM

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