Letter to the city about tornado sirens

[2001srnfan]

I don't know if you remember, but last week we had a tornado warning during a power outage. We had no warning, and this is what I had been telling the city would happen for at least a year now.

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Hello,
For the past three years I have been a resident of Waterloo, and I do take public safety to heart. Okay, so over the time I have lived here, there has been many tornado warnings, but no real warning system. I had just read in the news paper during emergency preparedness week that a few towns in the county may use their sirens as tornado alarms, including Elmira.

Usually, people would hear about the tornado on the radio or on The Weather Network, but last Wednesday proved that we need something more to keep the citizens of Waterloo safe in the event of a weather emergency. If you are aware, the power went out across my area, and the storm turned violent.

I know a few things about weather, thunderstorms and tornadoes are a hobby of mine, and I just thought the storm was getting nasty and that I should move to the basement. The storm was a violent one for sure, there was hail and gusty winds; and the loudest thunder I have ever heard.

After the storm had passed, I turned on my radio which was announcing the tornado warning for Waterloo Region was cancelled. I didn't think much of it, I was just glad nothing hit my house. But, I called my mother who works near Northfield Dr. and asked her if she heard if there was a tornado, because I heard emergency vehicles. She had her radio on, but she did not hear of a tornado warning. The power at her work was only out for a few minutes.

I called a few friends from around the city, and not one of them knew there was a tornado warning. I had asked if they had a window open at all during the storm, and 90% said yes.

In the weather community, tornado sirens are almost a must, it is a common belief every city from the Rockies east to the Appalachians south to Tennessee and north to the Ottawa Valley has tornado sirens, but when it was discussed why I had not heard the tornado sirens during the warning, many people were almost outraged. By the way, I am talking about this weather community http://www.storm2k.org/wx/ . Alright, well I had explained when I had questioned Waterloo Region and the City of Waterloo before about tornado sirens, the responses I got were tornado sirens are only needed in places like Oklahoma where there is a lot of tornadoes. Michigan and Ohio have tornado sirens, even a few cities in western New York. Including Sarnia, which I believe is the pioneer city of Ontario to show the province the need for outdoor warning systems.

Now, lets revise the situation. The power was out, there was a tornado warning and no one had any way to know, but were probably watching the storm from windows and front porches. Suppose a tornado did touch down in the city... what do you think would have happened? This is a major fear of mine, I don't think it is right for select people in the government to decide whether a tornado warning siren is needed or not because they have no real education of the southern Ontario tornado threat.

This could have been a catastrophe, it was a blinding storm, so the tornado would have been rain-wrapped. No one would see it coming. It would hit their homes and away they would go.

Just because tornadoes do not occur all too often in Waterloo Region, does not...repeating...does not mean we do not need tornado sirens. I did some research, and since 2000 Waterloo Region has had 12 tornado warnings and two tornadoes. Two, it doesn't sound like much, but not every storm produces a tornado. We should be counting our blessings it is only two... for now. Of course, it will go up. It could be this year, it could be next. It certainly could have been Wednesday May 31, 2006. The death toll caused by tornadoes could have gone up for Ontario. Since 1918, there has been over 640 recorded tornadoes in southern Ontario, including an F3 tornado in the location of Woolwich Township in the 1960s.

It's just... I don't know. But the nightmare scenario you often pass off in your mind could have occured on Wednesday. No one knew.

You might not think the public would support tornado sirens here, but that is because the tornado threat isn't overhyped. There is no real tornado education in southern Ontario, but the threat is very very real.

Also, it might sound like a lot of money to install tornado sirens, I'd say Waterloo would need anywhere from 10-30 siren units to cover the city with full coverage. Depending on what tornado siren you buy, the cost will vary. Sarnia, they have Acoustic Technology Inc. sirens. they cost about $5,000 per unit. Those sirens can be heard for about 1 mile, if more, and they do just as good of a job as a siren made by Whelen or Federal Signal (Elmira owns) at $20,000. ATI sirens are electronic, so they cost less. They can be sounded individually, or all at once. They also can be activated by a signal, or by pushing a button.

Seriously, you have to consider. We should think of the May 31, 2006 as a "fire drill", or "tornado drill" if you may, for what could actually happen. We need to be prepared, and we are slowly getting there, but much much more could be done. We do need outdoor warning, people might be at the park or in a parking lot during a tornado. It may sound hypathetical, but southern Ontarians don't take the weather threat as serious, because the local government isn't doing what they can to prepare us. I think that this years emergency preparedness week went well, I especially enjoyed the flyer I received by the Kitchener Record. Now, I don't know what is to do with what, but last year I reccomended the Waterloo Region emergency manager to think of a way to get the word out about emergency preparedness, I even told him that a flyer in the news paper would be a good idea. Though, I do not know if I played a roll in it.

So, please consider this email, I am just a concerned citizen who see's this cities vurnerability to tornadoes.

Mike Chambers

[cdvtripleseven]

Doesn't anyone have battery powered radios in Waterloo?
Why didn't you turn on your radio when the storm got there?
Do you need a siren to tell you to turn on your radio.
The first message to the public should be, "have a battery powered
radio and turn it on when the weather starts getting bad."
Also, why would people have their windows open during a storm???

[2001srnfan]

Doesn't anyone have battery powered radios in Waterloo?
Why didn't you turn on your radio when the storm got there?
Do you need a siren to tell you to turn on your radio.
The first message to the public should be, "have a battery powered
radio and turn it on when the weather starts getting bad."
Also, why would people have their windows open during a storm???

This is the problem about Canada...

No one cares about storms unless it's tornado warned. And, no one pays attention to warnings anyhow. Who owns a battery radio in Canada? there is no weather radios.

It's probably hard to explain the concept, because in the USA things are much different when it comes to storms. So, don't bad mouth me, I tried my best to explain this in the email. Southern Ontarians are just weather dumb.