doug — off the record

… sirens?

This was an issue in our community this past week. Going into a town council meeting our Deputy Mayor, on Facebook, asked for our thoughts about community sirens. You know the ones – they’re located on top of a building or tower and go off to warn you of impending danger. Apparently the town had one/some and they fell out of repair.

This is what Google Gemini thinks they look like.

A previous council had opted for an alert system to send phone calls, emails, or text messages to those who subscribe to warn you instead.

I suppose the list of possible warnings is long but the two biggest it seems to me would be an impending tornado or an incident at the Fermi II Nuclear Plant across the river/lake in Michigan. It’s easily seen if you go looking for it along County Road 20. When my wife and I go for our regular walks at Colchester and I snap a picture, I try not to include it. Given the distance and the fact that you can clearly the towers from there, they must be HUGE.

As a teacher, in the spring of the year, we’d always have drills to go through a procedure should something happen. My classroom was on the second floor and when the announcement would come through, I’d have to take my class in an orderly fashion to the ground floor, head to an inside wall and have them “assume the position” until the all clear was given. If you’ve ever dealt with teenagers, you just know how well and easily that would go! At the least, it was a one class all shot to pieces.

Back locally, as could be imagined, we were split in our opinions.

My comment was:

There was a time when sirens were crucial. We’ve moved on since then. Connections via cell and internet coverage have the ability to tell us of the emergency and, more importantly, what to do because of the emergency. I grew up in a community that had a “1 o’clock whistle” where the siren went off Saturdays at 1pm so that we could set our clocks. When I think back, it just seems to ancient. But, it served a purpose at the time. Investing in a siren that just lets us know that something is up seems similarly retro. Spend the money to educate those who need it to be properly connected. It seems to me that would make for a safer community.

I hadn’t thought about our “1 o’clock whistle” for years. Where we lived, it was just a loud reminder to check your clocks and watches. One time though, I happened to be downtown when it went off. It was really, really deafening. They don’t tell you that in real estate listings.

I did see the other side of this issue in the comments. Students might be walking to/from school and have no cell phone. This could get even worse if they end up being banned. I guess they would be expected to run to the nearest house for safety? Seniors don’t know how to subscribe to the electronic service. (That’s where the teacher in me offered a suggestion in the bottom of my message.)

As luck would have it, we had a really strong storm go through in the middle of the night, that night! The clanging of the wind chimes outside the bedroom window work me up and then both cell phones got an emergency alert. Maybe the town should just buy everyone wind chimes? I was advised of what was happening and told to get to the basement. If we only had a basement! I just went back to bed under the warm covers and followed Instant Weather on my phone as an internet broadcaster explained what was happening and demonstrating his computer skills navigating the maps.

I’m here to tell you that any tornado might have landed north of us in LaSalle and we sure got a great deal of rain and wind.

Tornado Path shows the location of sirens across the province. It should be noted that, if you zoom in on Amherstburg, the sirens that are shown are currently not working.

For a Sunday, what are your thoughts?

• how does your community warn you if a tornado or other emergency is on the way?
• as a teacher, how many times a year do you have practice tornado or other drills?
• as a teacher, what is “the position” that students would/should assume?
• as a principal, are these drills effective?
• do you subscribe to local alerts on your digital advice?
• what would be more effective? A siren or a digital notice?
• after the big storm, I did my regular walks and noticed tree branches down, damage to houses but surprisingly (to me) the magnolias remained intact. I expected to see petals everywhere but they stayed attached. Why didn’t they get blown down?
• do you have a family plan should something hit?

As always for a Sunday, I’d be most interested in your thoughts on this topic. Please share them in the comments below.

This is now an irregular Sunday morning themed post. You can check out all the previous posts here.