Does Florida need tornado sirens?

WELLINGTON, Fla. (CBS12) — After tornadoes from Hurricane Milton killed six people and damaged hundreds of homes in our communities, there are new concerns about the state’s emergency alert system. Despite Florida’s frequent severe weather, there is no network of outdoor tornado sirens to provide an additional layer of communication.

As a deadly tornado ripped through Fort Pierce, Brandi Clarke told CBS12 NewIt wasn’t a siren or cell phone alert warning her to take cover. It was one of her neighbors driving by, honking and yelling at her to get inside.

“She saved our lives,” Clarke said.

“I’m just a woman who was terrified and I’m so glad my fear found someone,” said Michelle Westfield, recalling her actions to warn her neighbors.

Television stations such as CBS12 News provide continuous coverage when part of our viewing area is threatened, such as a tornado warning. If someone is away from a television and is near a tornado, he or she should receive a Wireless Emergency Alert from the National Weather Service.

Dozens of people, including the manager of the village of Wellington, say they did not receive an alert on their cell phones on Oct. 9, even though they were close to the tornado and had emergency alerts enabled on their phones.

“Some people said, ‘By the grace of God I was able to seek shelter when I heard something on the TV, but I didn’t get an alert on my phone,’” Barnes told the CBS12 News I-Team. “We heard from residents, including some (village) office staff, that the traditional emergency weather alert system is used for weather events that typically occur automatically – many people did not receive these, including myself.”

Barnes said an apparent lack of communication has led some people to ask local officials about installing tornado sirens.

“All it takes is one catastrophe for people to think this is something we need to look at,” he said.

SIRENS CONSIDERED

Sirens are common in tornado-prone states such as Kansas and Iowa. The state of Florida has not invested in it, despite having the highest frequency of tornadoes per 10,000 square kilometers (even more than Oklahoma), according to the Florida Climate Center.

According to Craig Fugate, former FEMA administrator and director of Florida Emergency Management, state officials considered installing tornado sirens years ago.

“It has been discussed,” Fugate told the I-Team. “If you go back to probably 1998, we had a major tornado outbreak in Central Florida and we lost 42 lives. The first question was, should we have outdoor warning systems?”

Fugate said sirens have their limitations. If people have their windows closed and are indoors, they may not hear the noise, he said. And if they do, Fugate wonders if people even know what the sirens mean and how to proceed.

Given the cost of tornado sirens and questions about where to place them, Fugate said state officials decided there were better options.

“It was believed at the time that a better approach was to encourage the adoption of radios activated by the National Weather Service,” he said. As technology has evolved, Fugate says wireless emergency alerts are sufficient.

“Unless you have opted out of wireless emergency alerts via your cell phone, that has proven to be a better improvement,” he said.

Kevin Guthrie is the current Director of Emergency Management for Florida and agrees with Fugate.

“We don’t have the same type of tornadoes as the Midwest,” Guthrie told CBS12 News. “(Florida has) fast-moving storms. If we had sirens, I don’t know that people will get the ample warning they need. If (Floridians) don’t turn off the alerts on their phones and don’t change the settings, then indeed we have the best system to warn people.”

INVESTING COMMUNITIES

Without a state interest in sirens, some municipalities have decided to invest and install them themselves.

The city of Oviedo, located outside Orlando in Seminole County, spent $173,000 purchasing 10 tornado sirens in 2007.

“In 2006, the city of Oviedo was hit by severe weather,” explains Fire Chief Michael Woodward. “In 2007, elected officials felt it was important to provide citizens with a new level of security and notice.”

Chief Woodward said the sound of the sirens can be heard throughout the area, even to those inside. It costs a few thousand dollars a year to maintain their system, and they test the sirens once a month.

As Oviedo grows, they plan to purchase more sirens for the city. The chef believes the money was well spent.

“Anything we can do to provide an even higher level of notice,” he said. “You can’t put a price on life, that’s what it comes down to.”

Other communities, such as Winter Park, use their own siren system for tornado warnings.

Florida State University has an outdoor alert system for its campus community. Warning sounds and voice prompts play for events such as tornado, flood, and lightning warnings.

The Wellington manager said he believes sirens should be considered, but believes it should be a provincial-led effort.

“This (tornado) went over a distance of 20 miles,” he said. “It involved multiple jurisdictions. So a local system would not have protected people in neighboring communities or further north.”

WIRELESS ALERTS QUESTION

After so many residents reported not receiving a wireless emergency alert on the day of the tornado outbreak, the Village of Wellington is collecting information for the National Weather Service.

They are asking residents to describe their location at the time of the tornado warning and provide information about their wireless device and carrier so the NWS can investigate.

The I-Team spoke with Robert Molleda, the NWS Miami Office’s Warning Coordination Meteorologist. He said their office sent out the Wireless Emergency Alerts the day of the tornado outbreak.

He said their headquarters team is investigating reports from residents who said they did not receive the alerts on their phones, despite their notification settings being turned on.

Molleda said there may have been an issue with a cell phone company that prevented the alerts from going through, and he said the NWS is contacting individual cell phone companies to investigate.

He also suggested that some of these concerns could come from people just outside the warning area.

“You have to be in that alert area to get the message,” he said. “Even if you’re a few feet outside, you don’t get it.”

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