Xenia, Ohio Thunderbolt Sirens

[bellyjae]

What???? I live down the street from McKinley!! I’ve also never been on the school grounds. I live behind the school on Commonwealth Dr.

[bellyjae]

A map link that my brother made can be found here:
http://goo.gl/maps/lxjkP


Thanks for looking!

Does this map still work on your end? I can’t get it to open for me. Says it’s an unsupported link.

[Josh R]

A map link that my brother made can be found here:
http://goo.gl/maps/lxjkP


Thanks for looking!

Does this map still work on your end? I can’t get it to open for me. Says it’s an unsupported link.

That map worked when I pulled it up on my iPhone. Here is a direct link to the location of the siren at McKinley Elementary: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.6723386 ... a=!3m1!1e3

You will have to turn off 3D imaging to see the siren.

[Josh R]

So I drove up to Xenia on Sunday just for the fun of it (it's only 25 minutes from where I live in Wilmington) and wanted to check in on their old Thunderbolt sirens. I checked in on 3 out of 4 of their remaining Thunderbolts. All of their old T-Bolts are in sad shape.

Here are some pictures I got:
The old Thunderbolt next to Little Vine Street:

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The old Thunderbolt by McKinley Elementary School (which for some reason is missing its horn and horn support):

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and then there's the one on Ormsby Drive:

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There's also a Thunderbolt on top of the Xenia City Schools building on Evans Street. I didn't stop by that one yesterday, however.

Here are a couple of pics I got of that one back in 2012:

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I believe that all of these Thunderbolts were installed sometime shortly after the 1974 Xenia tornado. Xenia had no warning system in place during the 1974 outbreak. Xenia isn't really a very well-maintained town. Their streets really need to be repaved and there are a lot of run-down houses there. They also don't care that their old sirens are still in place, even though they could be a bit of a safety hazard in case the old things ended up falling on someone. A few of their old Thunderbolts have been long-gone, but four of them are still in place (but not operational). They were all replaced with 2001-SRNs around 2000.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy this update.

[siren fan]

Famously know as the town hardest hit by the palm sunday tornado outbreak back in 1974. Great pictures!!!

[coastalsyrolover]

This is an interesting thread... first off it’s interesting you say “falling on someone” because I know how heavy thunderbolt heads are and having the poles weight plus the blower plus that heavy RCM weight... yyyyyyea... but I admit it is pretty cool! Reminds me of Longview WA with their bolts all hanging around... pointing in the same direction for years on end...

[Josh R]

This is an interesting thread... first off it’s interesting you say “falling on someone” because I know how heavy thunderbolt heads are and having the poles weight plus the blower plus that heavy RCM weight... yyyyyyea... but I admit it is pretty cool!

Yeah I know too. I have a Thunderbolt and they are really heavy. I mean, I can lift the rotator without the horn for a few seconds without any assistance, and I can lift the horn and its support bar (which aren't really that heavy), but the blower on the other hand requires a two-wheeler or some other heavy-item lifting tool in order to lift it. I think it would be better if they removed and sold or scrapped them rather than them just sitting at the top of their poles rotting away and being a potential safety hazard.

[coastalsyrolover]

Yup. I don’t lift my rotator box. Too heavy for me. Especially with the 30 pound chopper tube on top. I use a dolly when I move it (thanks to the low center of gravity) and my model 5 is laying on its side on a cart so that it doesn’t constantly try to fall on everyone who moves it because of its high center of gravity. The horn I can carry fine as well but all 3 together. I mean if they wanted to leave them around as say... a piece of history... at least make sure they aren’t gonna cause a potential hazard. Longview Washington removed 2 of them that were creating one.