Cove Receives Tornado Sirens

BY LEANN DILBECK –

The town of Cove received another tool in its weather alert warning system arsenal according to James Reeves, Office of Emergency Services Coordinator, when new tornado sirens were installed last Friday.

The sirens were made possible by a $10,475 grant received from the Arkansas Department of Rural Services.  Cove Mayor JoAnn Headley said this was their second attempt to receive funding for the grant.

Cove took a direct hit from an EF-2 tornado in May of this year and residents had little to no warning to find safety. Reeves who monitored the May storm as it entered and crossed the county said, “It was on the ground before it even showed up on the radar.” Explaining that all of the radars [Little Rock, Tulsa, Shreveport] that cover Polk County are all at such distances, it takes 4.8 minutes to make a full rotation so calls were coming in about the Cove tornado on the ground before it was ever indicated on radar.

Reeves said the system can only be heard for a ¾ mile radius so he still recommends to all county residents that the best tool to have is a NOAA Weather Radio.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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