Looking for St. Louis (Mo.) area siren enthusiasts

[vortexofmisery]

Here's a heads up for the yearly statewide tornado drills in the area.

Missouri: TUE MAR 11 @ 1:30 PM CST EAS CODE: TOR
Illinois : TUE MAR 4 @ 10:00 AM CST EAS CODE: TOR

Hopefully some of us can get some good recordings. I will be available on March 11th to record a St. Louis area (Missouri) siren if anyone has any suggestions.

[FedTB]

That Illinois test may be cancelled in some parts of the state due to a snow storm predicted to begin tomorrow afternoon. But then again you never know.

I'm off work for the Missouri test. Lots of sirens to choose from that I'd like to go watch/videotape.

Not that I wish death and destruction on anyone, because I don't, but I love this time of year coming up due to the severe thunderstorm/tornado potential. Yes, I'm one of those nuts that goes outside "to hear the tornado sirens better", as the local EMA warns folks not to do (on their website) when it comes to what to do during a Tornado Warning. But I do exercise caution depending upon weather conditions at the time. If a large wedge tornado would be bearing down on my house I'd definately be hunkered down in my basement! I don't know if the close proximity of the Whelen WPS-2806 just down the road from my house could be heard over the roar of an impending tornado.

[Adam Pollak]

I plan on going out tomorrow to record the siren tests in St. Charles and St. Louis Counties, but with a rain threat, they both might cancel, since they tend to do that fairly easily.

I've gone through news archives online (going back to 1988) of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about sirens, but they don't have graphics and photos online, just text. So I wrote down the dates of the articles that said they had photos, went to the Wash U library microfiche archives and started going through. This article was from April 15, 1998, thought you would enjoy. We have the microfiches going back to the late 1800s, but I have no way of searching to know what is in them (at least no way that I know of).

[FedTB]

Yep, no siren tests were done today in St. Charles County. I'm sure it was due to the rain.

I remember the St. Louis County tornadoes of April 1998 VERY well! And I still have all of those newspaper articles from the Post-Dispatch that covered the tornadoes. The one that knocked down the T-Bolt in the picture was rated at an F1. I don't know if you already knew this but that T-Bolt was located on Lackland Road just west of Lindbergh Blvd. It was one of the original T-Bolt 1000's from the old St. Louis County CD system. It was soon replaced by a Whelen 4003.

The newspaper article reported that residents in that area complained that they didn't hear any tornado sirens going off, and, of course, it was because that siren got knocked down. You can't really tell in the photo, but that was one of the T-Bolts that had the blower box attatched to the telephone pole about 5 or so feet up from the ground. That's how all of the old St. Louis County CD T-Bolts were.

I was working that day at the firehouse and was assigned to the ambulance, and when the tornadoes were touching down I was in the back of our ambulance with a patient, enroute to St. John's Medical Center, and I heard a Whelen 3016 going off as we were heading north on I-270, almost to Hwy. 40 (I mean the new I-64!). Once we got to the hospital, the staff was on high alert and after we dropped off our patient I was listening to the scanner in the EMS Reporting Room of all the fire department activity going on, since we were only a half-mile or so from the nearest tornado touchdown. That area was in a frenzy, as you can imagine!

Let me know if you find anything else out of interest in the files. I'm sure there's something in there somewhere about the installation of the old St. Louis County CD siren system. That's our best bet of finding out when all of those old Federal sirens had been installed in the 1950's or so. I'm sure that was a story that was covered. There may even be some pictures of the sirens being installed. It could be very cool to see!

[500AT]

My father and his family lived through the 1927 St. Louis Tornado, and that was a nightmare. He was at home on Sarah Street, and recalled hearing the tornado coming, sounding like a 100 freight trains all at once. He dove under the bed as two cars flew by the house, and the windows started blowing in.

The next thing he recalled was the roof flying off the house, and looking up into the funnel as it passed overhead. He recalled it was the most eerie sight he ever saw, with blue skies up at the end of the funnel. Conversely, he remembered seeing parts of houses, a Model A, and a Coca-Cola sign swirling around in the tornado. However, my grandmother pulled him back under the bed just in time, as the walls came crashing down all around them.

I asked him if they had any early warning that a tornado was approaching, and he said no. "Back then, sirens were only used for fires, but not for approaching tornadoes." I wish he was still alive today, I would have asked him more questions about the outdoor sirens in use back then in St. Louis.

[FedTB]

There were no radars back then, no technology like they had starting in the 1950's when they were able to begin to predict severe thunderstorms. So if they were able to warn the public with sirens at all in 1927 it would be too late by the time they got them activated. People were basically on their own when it came to severe storms. They didn't know a tornado was approaching until they actually saw it in the distance. We don't realize how lucky we've got it now, with advanced warning systems.

Neat story about your dad being able to look up into the funnel.

[FedTB]

I'm not so sure that the City of St. Louis even had an air raid siren system back in 1927. I could see one being in place by the very late 1930's, closer to the outbreak of WW II. I know that the city had several Chrysler sirens by the early 1940's, and in the early 1950's they installed several Federal STL-10's.

Most communities didn't start using sirens for the warning of tornadoes until about 1959-1960.

[Adam Pollak]

I know before the system was dismantled right at the turn of the century, they had 127 sirens in the city, with the number of operational sirens usually in the 30-something range, which was why there was a huge push for the new siren system. All the old STL-10s were landline controlled and, going through news archives, they had lots of problems with false activations from lightning and especially just overall failed sirens. The city would routinely have Union Electric and SBC disconnect the sirens from the activation grid for those problems.


I have a map of all the siren locations from 1950 something, but I do not know if those are the locations of those STL-10s or if they were from a different system. Many of the locations downtown were building-mounted sirens. As far as the city is concerned, every old siren was removed when the new 2800 system was put in, so there are "none left", even though I know of 4. The vast majority of the sirens were installed in alleys, so it's extremely difficult to find them when the trees have all their leaves. St. Louis was a poster child city for Federal and their STL-10s, as I remember seeing an ad mentioning how the SD-10 was the upgrade to the STL-10 used so successfully in STL.

This is my last semester here at school so I really need to figure out as much old stuff as I can before I head out.

[FedTB]

Adam, I'd venture to guess that the map you're referring to shows where the STL-10's were located. I'm also guessing that when the STL-10's were installed, the Chrysler sirens were dismantled. But that's just a guess.

The reason why I think the map strictly refers to the STL-10's is because years ago, long before the Whelen 2800's were installed, the old siren system would occasionally make the news if there were a Tornado Warning or the statewide tornado drill took place, and the failure of several of St. Louis' sirens would be the topic, and the number 127 would always come up, as far as the number of sirens St. Louis had at the time, and that was long after the Chrysler sirens were dismantled. For example, the news reported something like, "Only 60 of the city's 127 sirens reportedly sounded today during the tornado drill", or, "Only 20 percent of the city's 127 sirens are operational."

[FedTB]

Adam, just to let you know, I was out and about today and I found a new siren. It's located in the City of St. Charles and is an ASC T-121. It's located in the St. Charles Soccer Complex on Elm Street at Hwy. 370. It can be clearly seen from 370. I had read awhile back that the City of St. Charles was adding 3 sirens to its system, so today I found one of them. I have a feeling that another one is located somewhere up near the New Town development. Just a hunch, though.

This is the first ASC T-121 in the St. Louis area that I know of.