Wisconsin T-135 Hit By Lightning

[Robman2ka]

As many of you may have already know southeast wisconsin was hit by a freak january F3 Tornado. I found this interesting that this siren didnt go off because of lightning. Heres the Links to the stories, one including video.

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/13570292.html

heres another story on it

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/13719502.html[/url]

[kswx29]

The usuall "We didn't hear the sirens" or "The sirens never went off, i couldn't hear them inside in my kitchen."...hope that siren gets fixed. It would sure suck to be out on the playground when that baby roared to life.

[Robman2ka]

yeah they said that a man from american signal was out there already attempting to fix it. Good to have ACA so close by in milwaukee i guess.

[Trey]

Heh, this is what gets me...

"We were informed by the parents picking up the children that the warning signals were off and we had no knowledge of that prior to the time unfortunately,? Wright said.


Brighton Elementary School does have a weather radio that sounds an alarm, but it's inside the office. The office had already closed for the day Monday when the tornado hit. The school day was over and people were only in the building for extra activities.

?Our primary concern is for the safety of the children, and without proper notification, we cannot respond correctly,? Wright said.

1. These sirens are for outdoor warning purposes only. Don't rely on a siren while you are indoors. People are too stupid.

2. They need to either move the weather radio to a place where people can listen to it when there is a function or they need to buy more and put in different areas of the school. One is not properly sufficient.

[RamFett]

Yes, the school was stupid to not be better prepared with more weather radios, etc. But to the school's credit, having a P-50/T-135 so close, they should be able to count on it functioning properly. Although it's not intended to warn them inside, I'm sure that being where it is, it does exactly that.

I'm surprised I never heard about this earlier...I live in Milwaukee!

[Justin]

Heh, this is what gets me...

Brighton Elementary School does have a weather radio that sounds an alarm, but it's inside the office. The office had already closed for the day Monday when the tornado hit. The school day was over and people were only in the building for extra activities.

2. They need to either move the weather radio to a place where people can listen to it when there is a function or they need to buy more and put in different areas of the school. One is not properly sufficient.

So much for common sense... Someone there must have put two and two together... At least you'd hope so.

They could get away with just the one radio (providing it has an "alarm out" socket) and wire it up to the public address system so that whenever the radio gets the alert, the whole school does.

My two bobs worth.

[MattDean1003]

I agree with yall, I mean you know the T-135 is the loudest currently made, with the exception of it's replacement, but one weather radio? In the Oconee County school system, there was always, I repeat, ALWAYS someone in the office until the school's doors were locked. The weather alarm was tested every week as far as I know, I heard it several times in the office.

Common sense. Lets talk about common sense. School staff letting the kids leave with their parents while under a tornado warning. In school, they taught us NOT TO GO OUTSIDE when there was a tornado warning unless you lived in a mobile home or you had a storm shelter. THEY WERE LETTING THE KIDS LEAVE WITH THEIR PARENTS, who IN TURN were driving during the tornado warning. You are not supposed to be out driving during a tornado. The smart folks would have taken shelter inside the school until the storm passed. This kinda stuff really agitates me. Common sense tells you not to pee on an electric fence doesn't it?

There really are some true idiots in this world. Tornadoes are dangerous. Enough said on my part.

[Justin]

I agree.

Would now be an appropriate time to draw attention to my signature?

[coyoteunknown]

I agree.

Would now be an appropriate time to draw attention to my signature?

*laughs* Nice signature, but there's one little flaw.

Read this news article regarding the language of tornado sirens to understand.

http://wcco.com/local/emergency.disaste ... 58159.html

Apparently it'll do more than get rid of the "stupid" people.

[MattDean1003]

I don't want to get off topic, but if you are going to live in the USA, learn to speak our language. Some of the siren pictures that have been posted have had pictures that display what tone the alarm is for. Not everyone reads them, but I can guarantee that some do. Portraying the voice message from the siren will also alert you to what is going on, but as the post began, learn the native language of the country. If I moved to Japan, I would gladly learn Japanese as it would be easier for communication. For those of you who get offended by this post, then I am sorry, I meant no offense to anyone who does not speak the native language of this country. But the moral of it is, if you understand and know the language of the country you move to, communication skills are greatly simplified, therefore in this case, had the siren's voice been used, she would have known the issue (the girl who threw the bike down and ran all the way home) at hand. I know that learning a language will not happen overnight. I took Spanish all throughout middle school and I still only know 3 words or so. I didn't care to learn it because I don't use the language at all.

Communities need to make their citizens more aware of what the warning signals mean. If it involves holding a class, posting big yellow signs that say read me for emergencies, or posting information on the communities website, DO IT. MAKE IT KNOWN TO THE PEOPLE OF YOUR TOWN WHAT YOUR WARNING SIGNALS MEAN! Bogart, the town that I used to live in, has no emergency warning system. 1610 AM is Oconee County's alert station, so if we don't hear it on our Atlanta stations, which are Magic 102.1, Eagle 106.7 and WNGC 106.1, the AM station is what we turn to.

I will use Bogart's siren for an example. A few of you may remember when I used this website to offer help on the Bogart City Council about obtaining a warning siren for the community. Bogart is a small town, with the railroad crossing and stop light at the same intersection, but they make do. I was present for 2 city council meetings regarding a siren, and I was on the website as listed for an informer of the sirens. A Safety Com representative was there explaining all of the signals for the Safety Com sirens as he called them. The EMA Director of Oconee County quickly shut him up and said that we only need one signal: Emergency Weather. We got to the point of putting in bids for the sirens, but the city council members decided that it was more important to make the city look better than it was to install one small emergency siren. A Model 2 would have been sufficient. But the moral of THAT story is that the signals were there, explained by the SafetyCom director, and that our EMA director only wanted one. ONE SIGNAL-NO CONFUSION. "When you hear that signal", he says, "take cover. Don't worry about a train derailment or a fire, take cover from a tornado."

So there you have it. Knowing the language of the place that you reside will most definetly help out with obtaining the signal information. Calling 911 when you hear the sirens will not. Inform your community of what the signals mean. Asking questions doesn't hurt.

Folks, I tried to put this all together and make as much sense as possible. If it makes sense to you and you benefit from it, wonderful, I am glad that I could voice my opinion. If it made NO sense to you, correct me. I'm up for corrective criticism.

Moral of this all: Don't complain about not knowing what the signal means. Ask questions. Inform yourself. Inform everybody. Call the president and tell him.