The decision not to sound tornado sirens during Wednesday's storm raised a whirlwind of controversy among Siloam Springs residents.
A severe thunderstorm hit Siloam Springs on Wednesday evening and the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning at 7:58 p.m. for an area south of Siloam Springs. The north edge of the warning box nicked the south edge of Siloam Springs' city limits.
"Due to no tornadic activity being confirmed, the decision was made not to activate the outdoor warning system," a release from the city states. The release came Friday morning after The Herald-Leader asked about the situation.
By Friday afternoon the city Facebook page had received 237 comments relating to the storm, many criticizing the decision not to sound sirens. People commenting also expressed confusion because police officers drove down streets in one part of town warning residents to take cover, but sirens did not sound.
"Should have sounded the sirens there's plenty of people without television or Facebook who needed to know to take cover. Thank goodness it wasn't too bad but still it could have been waaaayyyyy worse," Jodee Norman commented on Facebook.
"I'm curious as to how we're supposed to react to cops going up the streets with lights/sirens telling us to take shelter, but the tornado sirens aren't going off.. so it's not serious..," Robert Marshall wrote on the city's Facebook page.
Storm chaser James Hilger was south of the storm when the tornado warning was issued. He'd been tracking the story across eastern Oklahoma. He was underneath the storm near Westville, Okla., when the rotation passed directly above him.
Sounding the tornado sirens would have created a false alarm, said Hilger of NWAstormchasing.com.
"They absolutely made the right call because Siloam Springs was never in danger of that area of circulation," Hilger said.
Hilger, who describes himself as an extreme-storm chaser, has been chasing storms since 1999.
The rotation continued on almost directly east and passed about seven miles south of Siloam Springs, Hilger said. It would have been nearly impossible for it to turn toward the city because of the cold front hitting it from the north. In addition, the rotation was losing strength as it traveled east, he said.
Steve Amburn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa, also said the area of rotation in the storm was well south of Siloam Springs. The chances of that part of the storm turning north toward the city were not very good, especially because the storm had sustained the same motion for a long period of time, he said. Tornado warning boxes are very broad and it's entirely possible for the warning area to be large enough to include part of a town that wouldn't be affected by the tornado, he said.
Amburn said that to his knowledge it is up to each city to set its standards of when to sound a siren. City officials can sound sirens at their discretion with or without a tornado warning, he said.
As of Friday, the national weather service had not confirmed a tornado in the area and had no information that there was one despite careful investigation, he said.
The decision to sound tornado sirens is made by those in command at the emergency management office -- typically the police or fire chief, according to city administrator Phillip Patterson.
Sirens are an outdoor warning system that will be activated when there is a real and verified threat to the safety of the city, the release states. Patterson declined to define a "real and verified threat" because he said he may miss a threat.
"In the case of a tornado bearing down on the city headed in our direction we are going to sound those sirens," he said.
Although the sirens are tested monthly, the last time they were sounded because of severe weather was in May 2013, Patterson said.
The outdoor warning system is the final notification in the case of severe weather. Residents should not rely solely on hearing the sirens to implement their severe weather plan, the city release states.
"The outdoor warning system was never intended to be heard indoors in every building within the city," the release states.
It suggests that residents use redundancy when gathering weather information. Suggested sources include NOAA weather radios, local television and radio programming, the city's website and social media. It also suggests residents sign up for the city's notification system, Siloam Alert, which allows residents to receive alerts via their land line, cell phone, text or email.
However Siloam Alert suffered a break in service during Wednesday's storm and many people inside the tornado warning polygon did not receive notification, according to the city release. The city is working with the vendor to correct the failure.
One of the city's eight storm sirens was inoperable during the storm. That caused miscommunication within the police force, the city release states. The siren is located on Quarter Road, between Elm Street and Carl Street. Patterson said he hopes the siren will be back in working order in April. The city is currently troubleshooting with the manufacturer and multiple components have been removed and exchanged, he said.
During a time when the storm was very chaotic, a police officer heard a background conversation at the emergency management office discussing procedure, which caused him to believe that the sirens were about to sound.
The officer alerted neighborhoods in the area of malfunctioning siren, Patterson said.
The city's release calls the officer's actions "morally and ethically sound" and "keeping with the police department's practice to err on the side of public safety during highly tense and rapidly evolving events."
Resident Mary Ann Brown, after reading the city's release (which was posted on Facebook Friday morning), didn't buy the explanation.
"But if the Siloam Springs Police Department chooses to err on the side of public safety, based on the information, why didn't the emergency response manager err on the side of public safety?" Brown asked on Friday.
Brown's father, Hank Varwig, who lives just outside the city limits along Arkansas Highway 59, said he witnessed the rotation as it passed south of Siloam Springs. He described the rotating mass of clouds as being about a mile wide with a lowering along the south edge.
Varwig said he can usually hear the sirens from his home and was surprised when he didn't hear them Wednesday. Quarter- to golf-ball-sized hail damaged his roof and a vehicle parked in his yard.
Brown is concerned that if the storm shifted its track and the rotation became a tornado, Siloam Springs would have had very little warning. Elderly people and people with small children need extra time to take cover and places with large groups of people, such as hospitals or churches, also need advanced warning, she said.
There are many people who could slip through the cracks if they use the devices the city suggests, Brown said. Some turn their cellular devices off while sleeping, while others don't text.
"I get it that the sirens shouldn't be the only method people rely on, but some people really do rely on them," she said, recalling an incident when her family was awakened by the sirens.
Patterson plans to hold a staff meeting on Monday to review the actions taken during the storm.
General News on 03/29/2015