An outdoor warning siren, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — The Buffalo County Emergency Manager appeared before the Kearney city council with a presentation about the new secure two-way siren activation during the Tuesday, June 11 meeting.
Darrin Lewis, Emergency Manager, said that the two-way siren system project has bee in the works for the past two years and was funded by $280,000 from American Rescue Plan (ARPA) that was secured by Buffalo County.
Lewis said the prior system was only a one-way activation, with the ability to turn on and turn off the sirens only. He said they were reliant on residents in areas to report if a siren turned on for tests.
Now this new two-way system allows for two-way communication and has introduced redundancies against the system going down, the sirens can be accessed online to monitor their status and the digital security, and one-time codes prevent them from easily being hacked.
Lewis noted that exact scenario had occurred in Texas when hackers were able to access the emergency sirens and turned them on and officials were unable to access the system to turn them off for some time.
The system automatically activates if the National Weather Service – Hastings places any part of the county in a tornado warning polygon.
Lewis did note they still do rely on spotters to report the ground truth and the sirens can be activated manually if anything suspicious or dangerous is reported by weather spotters.
There are 45 sirens in Buffalo County, with 27 of them being located within Kearney.
It was noted by Lewis that the sirens are emergency sirens, not regulated to tornado warnings alone. He said the purpose they serve is to alert people to a situation and they should immediately seek out more information about the situation.
The sirens could also be triggered for tennis ball sized hail, 80 mph winds or a major hazardous waste spill.
Lewis also noted that the sirens are for people who are outdoors, he quipped that emergency managers say that if you can hear them within one’s residence, “that’s a bonus.”
The sirens are able to project under a mile, depending on buildings and trees within the area. Lewis said most are 40 to 50 feet in the air.
Lewis emphasized that when the sirens sound, people should get indoors immediately and seek out more information about what is occurring.
Buffalo County Emergency Manager Darrin Lewis, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
