City to test warning sirens

By Bobby Horn Jr.
news@casscountynow.com

Things are about to get loud in Atlanta.
Starting in June, the city will begin a monthly testing of its storm warning siren.
Fire Chief Robin Betts said the first test will be June 4 at 12 p.m. Afterwards, the sirens will be tested on the first Saturday of each month at noon. The test will be a continuous tone for 30 seconds. If this were an actual emergency, the tone would last three minutes. Betts said that the tests will not be held if there is inclement weather, so as not to confuse residents.
“People will get used to it,” Atlanta City Manager David Cockrell said. “It’s going to be inconvenient for 30 seconds a month, but it’s worth it.”
Cockrell said that the alarm will sound in an emergency if a tornado warning has already been issued by the National Weather Service, a tornado has been sighted in the city by a trained observer and weather radar shows rotation of a system in the immediate vicinity of Atlanta or Queen City.
“The alarm lets people know to take immediate precautions and find an inside room with no windows,” Cockrell said.
Cockrell said that thanks to advances in technology most people have advance warning of a severe weather system either through television news and cell phone alert. The siren system, he said, is primarily designed for those who might be outside, people traveling through the community or those who don’t have ready access to a cell phone.
“We want to make people weather aware, to let them know if they are in a projected path,” he added.
He also noted that the city also makes use of the CodeRED Mobile Alert app. CodeRED is a telephone alert system. According to the app’s creator, Emergency Communications Network, “The CodeRED Mobile Alert safety app delivers real-time emergency, community, missing person and severe weather alerts to users within the exact area of impact.”
To download the app go to ecnetwork.com/codered-mobile-alert-app/.
The city intends to send out reminder messages prior to the tests through CodeRED.
In December 2015 the city demolished its only siren tower, which was located near the old fire station on East Hiram Street. It has been replaced with a four-siren system, located in concentric circles around Atlanta and Queen City in order to give the greatest coverage.
“What we had this time last year was not a (warning) system,” Cockrell said. “This system is far and ahead better.”
The system utilizes sirens in four sites. They are at the Atlanta Middle School, the maintenance building at the Atlanta High School, on the Grandview Street water tower and at the Queen City City Hall.
Cockrell said Queen City partnered on the project, paying the cost for their siren.
The cost of the system was $81,300. The city received a Hazard Mitigation grant from FEMA which covered 25 percent of the cost.