New Outdoor Warning Sirens Installed for Acorn & Vandervoort

BY MELANIE BUCK –

Polk County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) completed installing outdoor warning sirens in Acorn and Vandervoort last week.

OEM Coordinator James Reeves said they recognized the need for outdoor warning sirens, also known as ‘tornado sirens,’ to be placed in communities where school buildings are located. Reeves said, “The need became more urgent after the EF-3 tornado that damaged much of the city of Mena on April 9, 2009.”

Planning for the new sirens has been ongoing, and since that planning began, Reeves reported that the cities of Grannis, Wickes, Cove, and Hatfield have all purchased sirens for their respective cities. “This left the school campuses at Vandervoort and Acorn as the only remaining campuses without coverage from an outdoor warning siren.” Reeves said they plan to add a siren at the Vandervoort junction to be near Cossatot River High School, as funding becomes available.

OEM worked with Polk County Judge Brandon Ellison and found a potential funding source from the General Improvement Fund Grant Program of 2014. State Representative Nate Bell assisted in securing funding for the siren placed at Vandervoort and (then) State Representative Terry Rice assisted securing funding for the Acorn siren. Rich Mountain Electric donated the utility poles used for mounting the sirens, and also installed them at no cost. Each of the sirens totaled a cost of $11,802.50 each. Reeves said, Rich Mountain Electric “helped to speed the process of installation while keeping cost within our budget, we could not have stayed within our budget without their generous donation.”

Both of the Acorn & Vandervoort sirens along with the sirens for Grannis, Wickes, Cove, and Hatfield are radio activated and during normal operations are controlled by the Polk County Dispatch Center who will activate them when those communities are placed under a tornado warning by the National Weather Service or by request of OEM, area law enforcement, or a trained storm spotter. The sirens can also be operated remotely by the Polk County Office of Emergency Management.

All county sirens are tested once a month on the first Wednesday at 12:00 noon. With the exception of the Acorn and Vandervoort sirens, all tests will run for three minutes. The Acorn & Vandervoort sirens have a cancel feature that can be used to stop the test. The City of Mena tests their sirens independently of the county siren tests and they are also tested weekly on Wednesdays at 12:00 noon, by the Mena Fire Department.

Polk County OEM advises citizens to take shelter immediately upon hearing the activation of the outdoor warning sirens. The sirens will continue to sound while danger is imminent. There is no signal for all clear or that the storms are passed. A secondary source such as a NOAA weather radio or a local radio station is recommended to provide more detailed storm information. If no siren has sounded for ten minutes or longer, it is a general indication that the storms have passed your area and you may leave your shelter cautiously.

Outdoor warning sirens are designed to warn those in an outdoor setting, they are not designed to warn those indoors or in cars. An alerting weather radio that broadcast a weather warning is the preferred method to receive weather warnings while indoors.

For any question please contact James Reeves at the Polk County Emergency Management Office at 479-394-8141.

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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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