Decatur Hits Tornado Siren Again
March 15, 2008 | 9:29 pmAccording to InDecatur and a comment by Rachel in a previous post, Decatur hit the tornado siren twice this afternoon as storms descended upon the city.
The wife and I were OTP at the time, so we didn’t hear anything. The dog still isn’t speaking to me.
Isn’t it interesting how when there WAS a tornado last night within a couple miles of town we never got the siren warning? I had no clue about it until 11:15p when my Dad called me from Connecticut. That’s twice that my parents in the Northeast knew about severe weather in Decatur before I did.
I’m not placing blame, it just shows how unpredictable twisters can be. That and how TV, the internet and free long distance has made the world a very small place.
UPDATE: The AJC reports that downtown got an 8 minute warning from the National Weather Service before the tornado hit. Additionally, the article notes that downtown Atlanta doesn’t even have a tornado siren. So, Decatur is at least one step ahead of Atlanta in that regard.
Was DeKalb County ever under a tornado warning last night? I don’t recall there being one. There was one today.
Leoghann: Yes, there was a tornado warning issued last night for the twister that went thru downtown. The warning specifically mentioned the areas downtown that got hit as being in the path. The warning moved eastward into DeKalb county.
I use Weather Underground to notify me of severe weather via text message… I have it set up to send a message whenever a severe weather alert is issued for our area. I also have it text me warnings for my parent’s house, as well, so I know when they have bad storms, too. Tho SMS is not 100% reliable, it has been pretty consistently timely. Usually, just as I get a message from a friend saying his weather scanner went off, I have the text on my phone alerting me…
The siren you are referring to is owned and maintained by Agnes Scott College. It wasn’t activated on Friday evening because DeKalb was never under a tornado warning — only severe thunder storms. I was following the weather on Friday night too and the weather forecasters kept saying it was headed for Buckhead. That storm moved so fast I think it caught the forecasters by surprise. On Friday a tornado warning was issued for DeKalb and the sirens were activated. DeKalb County once maintained sirens and had one in downtown Decatur. These sirens were first installed as a civil defense warning system and were decommissioned in 1988. The City of Decatur is investigating installing several sirens throughout the city. Until then, I’m glad to have Agnes Scott’s system in place.
The siren is actually operated by Agnes Scott and not the City of Decatur. In the past, we relied on a civil defense siren system operated by DeKalb County but it was dismantled in 1988. We are investigating the possibility of installing a siren system in the city. Agnes Scott activates their siren when a tornado warning is issued. There was a tornado watch issued for DeKalb on Friday night but never a warning. On Saturday, two warnings were issued and the siren was activated both times.
FYI – The first time the siren went off on Saturday, I called the Decatur police station to ask them if it was a city warning and they said it was “probably” a county siren. Guess the police don’t even realize ASC has a siren!