A Scripps News investigation finds many of the sirens that warn of tornado risks and other disasters are dangerously outdated.
Tommy Hengst and his wife, Pam, had just seconds to dash into their windowless utility room and throw a pillow over their heads before an EF-4 tornado began sucking the roof off their home in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
"The warning across the street, it didn't ever go out," Jennings said. Instead, Jennings says the tornado's arrival was a"total surprise." A Scripps News investigation has found many sirens across the U.S. are failing or are dangerously outdated, leaving millions of people vulnerable in disasters such as tornadoes, wildfires, floods and tsunamis.Scripps News has pieced together how in Rolling Fork, a system dating back to the 1980s, failed when the town needed it most.
"We have some older, seasoned dispatchers who are not computer-savvy," Jenkins said."So they don't know how to take extra initiative to check for weather." There are tens of thousands of outdoor warning sirens across the U.S., but there are no national standards that recommend how they should be used, maintained and tested.
In St. Clair, Michigan, the incoming emergency manager, Justin Westmiller, discovered half of the county's 52 sirens weren't working at all.
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