Wisconsin T-135 Hit By Lightning

[Daniel]

Matt, I agree. There is a video of talking tsunami sirens in Thailand speaking in Thai, English, German, Mandarin, and something else. By the time they got to your language, you'd probably be dead. The Hmong lady said that it sounded like a police car, and that is the problem with many American sirens, especially electronic ones. They are too high pitched. The use of lower pitch (i.e. STL-10) or dual-tone sirens, especially the universal minor third "Carters" sound that everyone recognizes from movies, seems the most effective way to differentiate an emergency siren from a vehicle siren. Sentry is the only American manufacturer consistently making lower-pitch sirens today.

[500AT]

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.

I know a private school here in southeastern Michigan, which uses a Federal Informer that is connected into the PA system. Whenever an emergency happens, the receiver is activated by radio tones. When a Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm Warning, or a Civil Emergency (SAME) Message (CEM) is issued, the radio will sound over the PA system. However, a second Informer located inside the front office will sound for all other alerts, also, acting as a backup to the other receiver.

The local EMA office uses a VHF-High band frequency to set off over 200 specialized alerting monitors. These durable radio receivers are placed in all of the factories, government offices, hospitals, and schools. The local EMA office also actives the outdoor warning sirens on the same frequency, but with a different set of tones.

The really good thing about this PA system set up, is that it allows the students, and teachers inside the building and on the playground to hear the emergency message. Moreover, whenever the EMA office is not occupied, this system will replay any NOAA Weather Radio warnings as well. I really wish that more schools would use a similar installation in their districts, as it would really benefit everyone concerned.

[Justin]

Matt, I agree with you 100% and you've given such a good argument, I can't really add onto it any more. Well done.

As for the 'sirens - language' story, I believe that it was a combination of factors that contributed to that womans actions. Being a foreigner, not knowing that those 'sirens' are there to protect her and the community rather than to scare the living crap out of everyone and the high pitch that they operate at.

When I was referring back to my signature, I was making light of the situation previous to my last post. It baffles me how such an important issue can be so .... underlooked (for lack of a better word). Common sense would dictate that if you only had one weather radio: either buy another one and stick it in a more accessible place, or move that radio to a more accessible place. But things like this do happen all the time, education is the key; in both situations.

[MattDean1003]

Once again, here I go on a tangent. Be prepared, I may hurt some feelings with this one:

You know, I'm more of a reader than a poster, but Justin, I fully back your signature. The world is full of idiots. If the world was full of smart people, then we wouldn't be headed for the recession of 2008.

I've always had the thoughts of living by one language. Why can't we just live by one language? One set language. That way, as stated before, when the siren declares that the tornado is bearing down on your heels, you freakin' understand what it says. As Daniel said, and I quote, "By the time they got to your language, you'd probably be dead." Very well said Daniel.

Idiots and common sense. As previously mentioned, you don't have a little buzzer that goes off in your head that tells you to go pee on an electric fence. I did it by accident one day and I can tell you now, it wasn't a very nice experience. That draws along the lines of running outside with a camera when the tornado sirens go off on a day different than test day. Clearly, it's not something that we are supposed to do, and if I offend anyone in saying this, forgive me please. If the Vortex down the road goes off on a non scheduled test day, then I will probably be hauling arse down the road because I do live in a mobile home. I'd find shelter and seek it appropriately. But, I surely wouldn't go pick my kids up from school when I can see a greenish colored sky and hear sirens blaring. No sir, if anything, we would seek shelter in the school. Driving home with a child in the car when tornado sirens are blaring and it's storming is really a wise thing to do, let me TELL you. There are plenty of places to take shelter. Gas stations, store, Wal Mart for crying out loud. People just don't take the sirens seriously anymore. Continued to next paragraph.

IMHO, Youtube destroyed the storm community. Trained professionals who storm chase posted videos of their tornadoes and storm footage on there, and by that, the average Joe that doesn't know how to start a lawn mower and cut grass without drinking a beer goes and gets himself a handy dandy camcorder that he knows NOTHING about, and shoots some video of the tornado tearing across this front yard. "Whoa this is cool stuff!", he says. And, he posts it on the biggest video website in the universe. Then, little Timmy Jones down the street sees a tornado, and runs outside to film it with his little Aiptek camcorder that he got for Christmas, unbeknowingst of the impending weather. He saw it on Youtube, it looked cool, now he is actually seeing one, so he's going to film it and show people that he saw one too!

People just DO NOT CARE about the danger. It's more for the thrill now. You hear about a tornado and you go to watch it pass. Oh no, don't worry, it's not going to hurt anyone. It's just going to tear stuff up and entertain many. Do we see what this ties into? Justin, back me up here buddy. COMMON SENSE! COMMON SENSE COMMON SENSE COMMON SENSE!

We on the siren board do this, no offense. But, we on the siren board also have a little information on what tornadoes are going to do, and where they may possibly go. Several of you, over time, have mentioned skywarn classes and training, and even HAM radio. Joey's mom has no idea of what the big funnel cloud in the sky is capable of doing to her and her son when she picks him up from the elementary school and takes him home. Should the hail hitting the windshield worry her? No, I don't think so. Should the wind blowing the car around worry her? No, I THINK NOT.

As you all can see, the lack of common sense of people in this world totally pisses me off. Knowing that people put themselves and their children in danger EVERY DAY just sickens me. A few weeks ago, a mother tried to outrun a train-I saw the footage on youtube but I can't for the life of me remember where it was, but I think it was BNSF she tried to outrun. Yeah, lucky broad made it past the first freight train but the second one snuck up on her. Killed both of her children. Common sense tells you not to hurry around the gates, just to be patient and let the trains pass. Do you value your life or do you value the first five minutes of the football game on TV? We rednecks get mistaken for having no common sense. I'm labled a redneck. But, you know what, I learn from my mistakes, as should all of you. I KNOW what to do when I see a funnel cloud coming at me. I take shelter. Even if I have to drive a half a mile down the road to someone's house that I know nothing of or about, I will do it. I know what to do when I see a motor backfire a flame out of the carburetor. Move the distributor cap and try it again.

Sorry to you all for getting off on yet another tangent. I just wanted to make it clear as to how much our world really lacks common sense. It's all over the news. Accidents happen every day, every minute, because of people that don't think twice. Thank you for the comments to my previous post. It's good to know that the information is being digested and learned, and not just looked over.

I'll check in with you all tomorow. It's 5:42 AM, I can't sleep for worry about the recession of 2008, and I'm going back to bed to try to get some sleep. Goodnight all.
[/b][/i]

[Robert Gift]

Heads should roll since its failure was previously reported.
"The school says they have previously reported the siren wasn't working during routine tests. ..."

(Were authorities waiting assuming (resonably) that tornadoes would never occur at this time of year?)
To prevent accidental activation, (mouse chewing into a control wire, moisture somehow closing the motor starter switch, etc.) I had considered turning off our 2t22 three-phase circuit breaker through the winter months.
But after this I should leave the siren armed.

How does lightning make a siren inoperable?
Aren't the circuits well shielded?

[Justin]

If lightning hits a siren directly (i.e. on the chassis), the first thing to go would be the motor(s) inside the head; and then any electronics that are attached to it as the electricity finds it's path to ground.

If an indirect hit is taken, most likely the electronics would be fried first.

An average bolt of lightning carries a negative electric current of 40 kiloamperes (kA) (although some bolts can be up to 120 kA), and transfers a charge of five coulombs and 500 MJ, or enough energy to power a 100 watt lightbulb for just under two months. The voltage depends on the length of the bolt, with the dielectric breakdown of air being three million volts per meter; this works out to approximately one gigavolt (one billion volts) for a 300 m (1000 ft) lightning bolt. With an electric current of 100 kA, this gives a power of 100 terawatts.

Apart from complete and utter isolation in every way; there is no true way to completely 'lightning protect' anything.
Surge protectors that claim to protect against lightning strikes are a half-truth, bordering false advertising. No electrical suppression component (to my knowledge) is capable of arresting that amount of current. They can help protect against small current surges from the power company or a distant strike but never a direct one.

[Robert Gift]

I would expect an earth ground at or above the siren.
Also, electrical conductors to be enclosed within metal conduit.

When I built my huge Tesla coil, I performed some electrical protection tests.
(I was considering starting a lightning rod company: Bob's Rods)
The solid metal conduits, earth grounded, were excellent at keeping enclosed conductors protected with no to little induced voltage.

Though this Tesla coil emitted very high voltage, (couldn't measure it -estimated 6 mV because arcs reached 2 meters), and high amperage, it did not even approach the amperage or voltages of any lightning bolt.
Still, the shielding worked very well.

I can understand lightning killing low voltage and solid state circuitry, but not heavy amp shielded power supplies.

[holler]

Don't panic, I speak Whelen!!

But that was a funny story though. But since she didn't speak english, using the voice feature on the sirens probably would have panicked her even more (would have thought the cops were yelling at her over the PA).

I guess they had their Whelens in attack or high/low. I've never heard a police car sound the alert tone.

[dboyle]

I'd love to see a system that can decode NOAA's EAS tones and activate indoor warning signals throughout facilities that should have one - healthcare, educational, etc.

I work in the fire alarm world, where notifying people, and making sure people are notified, is my job. Many systems, instead of just indicating "FIRE" by buzzing horns, can be set up to warn of a number of other problems - security issues, gas leaks, flooded rooms, etc. Oftentimes this is done by the use of a "priority 2" alarm on Simplex equipment, but every other manufacturer has a way of phrasing it. Furthermore, EVAC (Emergency Voice and Alarm Communication) systems, basically a pre-recorded voice broadcasted to certain building occupants, are becoming more and more popular. so here's what we do...........

1. A NOAA receiver is set to close a set of contacts during activation of the EAS tones. The dry contacts would be wired to the voice control or fire panel. we'd use the standard NOAA weather broadcast channels - around here, it's 162.55 MHz, and any scanner can tune it in.

2. When an input signal is triggered, the voice panel would play an alert tone over the building's fire alarm speakers (chime, whoop, buzzer, whatever) for a few seconds. when the EAS's alert stops and the voice message is played over the NOAA channel, this message is automatically relayed to and played over the fire alarm speakers. All occupants are then notified. No, we won't use the fire alarm strobes, because people who didn't hear the message for one reason or another would see the strobes and think "fire", and possibly head outside. if we wanted to use visible annunciation, we'd use a different color strobe that isn't used for fire signalling. they do exist, as I've seen yellow strobes and manual pull stations specifically for tornado warnings, for this purpose.

when tested and implemented, and deemed to be reliable, the equipment is integrated with the building's fire communication systems via a radio receiver fixed permanently to the building. this is to reduce the human error factor. ("ohh, that's what that wire was for!!!")

this takes the human factor out of hearing the EAS tones, and then making the connection to making an announcement. it would be taken care of immediately, via a series of alert tones and NOAA messages being played throughout the building, automatically, and then repeated until manually silenced.

I'm rising to this occasion... unfortunately, I'm sure that somewhere, this does exist. maybe not to this extent.. but I have seen severe weather warnings used on fire alarm systems in buildings, where a different audible alarm was used.

[ThunderboltFreak]

Common sense isn't common.