Now, when you think of “siren states”, I’d bet a fair amount of money West Virginia isn’t the first state on you mind. WV is a beautiful state and believe it or not, has sirens. Charleston, the state capital and largest city, has a system. The little information on the board I was able to find confirmed Mods, 2001s, and a DSA. That was about all. West Virginia being my favorite state, I took on the task of finding more about the system. Not going to lie, I am surprised. West Virginia averages 2.4 tornadoes a year, yet Charleston has a full fledged siren system that warns of tornadoes. However, the sirens do sound for HAZMAT emergencies, but Im not sure how common these are. The bottom line is, Im surprised they have so many sirens. In Kanawha and Putnam counties, there are 55 total sirens. Those sirens are a majority of MOD IIs and 2001s. However, in the past few days, I found some interesting stuff. Lets begin.
QUICK FACTS: Kanawha/Putnam county siren system
-55 sirens
-22 MOD IIs installed in 2013
-Tested the 4th Monday of every month @noon
-Operated by Kanawha Putnam emergency planning committee
NON 2001/MOD SIRENS IN AREA (the discoveries)
A 3T22 on top of the Charleston housing authority. This siren did bot activate for their 2019 SWA (Reported on by local news), but Im hopeful and have a hunch it’s active
A single celled Whelen Omni next to (and operated by) Yeager airport that warns of landslides, installed in 2015 after a local landslide. It is automatically activated once a stream gauge reaches a flooding point in which the mountain side could come falling. The siren is described as “high-pitched”, which is odd because whelens are lower pitched than mods and 2001s, unless it has a different control box than whelen. That’s just speculation though. That siren is tested at the 1st Monday of the month @noon.
A Model 5 in Alloy, WV. Credit to 4J25 for discovering it. It’s near a factory so it could be tied to the factory but the siren map on the website shows a siren near the location
An inactive thunderbolt in Marmet. A 2001 stands right next to it.
In Chesapeake, there is a Sterling M, also standing next to a 2001. Thanks to 4J25 for discovering that as well.
2 Thunderbeams located at DuPont middle school and Midland Trail elementary (Thank you to Adam Pollak)
Im still working to verify roundback 2001s. This summer I will hopefully make a map of the system. I will also be updating this post in the near future. Hope this was somewhat interesting!
(I wonder if Charleston once had a system comprised of older Federal Sirens...)
Note: I am on mobile, so if I could have mercy for any typos, that’d be great