The Siren Board

This proud Thunderbolt rotting on the pole in Hanover Township, MI (Jackson Co.) I doubt if few know it is here anymore. The wires were cut and in the summer you wouldn't see it for the vegitation. Last spring I was told by person that lived on the street that the baffle on the poles next to the siren was erected because the siren scared the cows on nearby farms. Such a shame to see it sitting there silent.


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That's a crazy set up. Nice pictures.

My guess is this siren went up after the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak in the mid-sixties this area isn't too far from fatalities in that incident. Also this siren was in service as recently as the early 80's because the was the time most of the sirens in the county went to radio signal control which are present on the pole. Makes one wonder how soon we will start to see 2001's sitting forgotten on the poles. Sirens are a funny thing when it comes to different communities. Many times they are purchased after a close call then forgotten about a few years down the road till the next close call happens and everyone wants to know why the sirens didn't work. My thought has always been if a community doesn't want to fix it then give it or sell it to a community that will use and take care of it.

I don't suppose anyone would miss this Tbolt if were to magically disappear . I'm sure i'm not the only with that in the back of my mind

Wish it weren't so far from here.
I'd rescue her and with TLC she would be on duty as a tornado siren east of Denver.

That poor thing. I think it terrible that they don't even use it to create parts that will save others from dying off. Does anybody know if this siren was working at the time it was deactivated?

Josh

Federal Signal fan wrote:That poor thing. I think it terrible that they don't even use it to create parts that will save others from dying off. Does anybody know if this siren was working at the time it was deactivated?

Josh

I'm pretty sure it's broke down or it would still be hooked up. I think it has been out of service for a few years. It's possible the siren was bought and put up by the Lake Association rather than the township and it could have been a used siren when they bought it years ago. Some people on the lake I have talked to over the years say it has worked some years and then other years it's silent. I think it is one of those deals where it has been repaired a few times and they just gave up on it the last time it quit. In the 10 years I have known it to be there the projector has never moved. Probably would have to cut a lot of the tree away to even take it down for any reapair. You can't see it in the summer unless knowing where to look for it. Older T-bolts can be a money pit once they wear out.

Jpressman8 wrote: I don't suppose anyone would miss this Tbolt if were to magically disappear . I'm sure i'm not the only with that in the back of my mind

LOL, given the area it's in I'd advise against it unless one enjoys hearing buckshot pellets overhead. When I took the pics I didn't hang around long.

ill go take that thing down and make it dissapear

I used to know Milo Thompson, who was the Emergency Management director for Jackson County. He was one who believed that you can never have too much of a good thing, or too many sirens to warn the public. After he retired from the Michigan State Police in the early 1970s, he went to work on the Jackson County Civil Defense program, but found that a lot of communities wanted to do everything their own way.

Ironically, the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak of 1965, is something that a lot of people have gone to great lengths to forget. Television meteorologist Blake Naftel and I, worked on an extensive Web page detailing the events of April 11, 1965. Sadly, he received hundreds of emails requesting that the page be taken down, as it was wrong to glorify the events of this tragic event. Never mind that this Web page was for public education purposes, they felt it was just wrong to publish the events of that fateful day.

Nine years later, The "Super Tornado Outbreak" of April 3, 1974, once again spelled out the fact that Southern Lower Michigan is indeed in the infamous "Tornado Alley." Around 2000 hours that evening, a large F2 tornado tore a path through Hillsdale County, entering into Jackson County and lifting north of Clark Lake. Sadly, this storm killed two people, as it completely demolished a mobile home park near Hillsdale. Once again, the public complained about bot being warned about the approaching severe weather.

According to Milo, he said that both Hillsdale and Jackson Counties, used this event drum up support for more sirens across the county, but many local towns balked at the idea of paying for new sirens. Their mentality, especially in Jackson County was, "Why worry about it, we haven't been hit yet." Sadly, this attitude still prevails in many areas to this day.