Westchester County, NY Tornado: any siren activations?

[FedTB]

I was just wondering if there were any siren activations the other day in Westchester County, New York when it was hit by the F2 tornado. I know that New York isn't real prone to tornadoes, but do they activate sirens there for Tornado Warnings? There are loads of volunteer fire departments up that way with rooftop or pole-mounted sirens. Just wondering if those were used as well.

[Jim_Ferer]

The only siren system I know of in Westchester County is the Indian Point nuclear plant system. (P10-P15s [?] and Whelens.) Some firehouses have a siren but I don't know if they're networked at all. People wouldn't know what the sounding was for anyway.

[zetronist]

Nope. No sirens.

With the exception of Nuclear Sirens and those at the jails, the only sirens that sound in the southern part of New York are fire sirens, and fires are their only function.

If sirens sounded, the general population would not understand them to be an alert for a tornado-- they would just think the fire department was being activated for some kind of storm related alarm.

It's a whole different world out here than in the midwest. (regrettably, I must add!)

John

[PhRed]

I trust you mean "regrettably" in the sense that you'd much prefer the 5 to 20 sirens per *individual Mid-Western/South-Central/Deep-Southern municipality* than the actual tornadoes themselves.

[zetronist]

I trust you mean "regrettably" in the sense that you'd much prefer the 5 to 20 sirens per *individual Mid-Western/South-Central/Deep-Southern municipality* than the actual tornadoes themselves.

Absolutely

[FedTB]

Thus the need for multi-use sirens, not just for alerting the volunteer firefighters. And a public educated in knowing the difference between when to take cover and when there's a fire or medical emergency call!

So tornadoes don't happen every day, or every year for that matter, in the state of New York, but they DO happen sometimes! And if the public isn't made aware of the danger that's impending because they're only aware of sirens used for the volunteer fire companies, well, there's a problem, and luckily no one was killed or injured from that tornado, at least of what I'm aware of. Hopefully the local television and radio stations alerted the folks up that way with ample warning.

[Jim_Ferer]

No town in Westchester is going to put up money for a siren system with so many other calls on its money. I've lived in the area since 1988 and this is the first tornado in Westchester (There's been two in Connecticut - one on the night my older daughter was born. They say it's the lower barometric pressure that starts women into labor.) If you had a choice between a siren system and a new fire truck, you might be wiser to buy the new truck. Tornadoes are something like a 30 year event in a place like Westchester.