St. Joseph County emergency management officials are upgrading tornado sirens to possibly prevent the kind of confusion that led to unnecessary deaths in Hawaii’s recent wildfires.
The upgrades were planned long before the Aug. 8 fires that have killed at least 115 people, with many more bodies expected to be found.
In the Hawaiian fire, the emergency management director chose not to sound warning sirens to evacuate the area because he feared people would mistake them for their usual use: warning of a tsunami. The director, who has since resigned, worried people running from a tsunami would evacuate to higher ground toward the fires.
St. Joseph County’s sirens have only one sound, but the planned upgrades will allow three different sirens for different types of disasters, says Al Kirsits, the county’s emergency management director.
The upgrades also will let emergency management officials activate selected sirens, in the event of a hazardous materials spill.
“You know most of these are around 20 to 25 years old,” Kirsits said. “We’ve got a good working network of them and they needed a significant upgrade.”
Upgrading 67 sirens will cost about $1.5 million, to come from American Rescue Plan money. A few new sirens will be erected in areas where population growth is anticipated, including in New Carlisle and State Road 23 south of South Bend. The work is expected to be finished by next summer.
