Published on: Thursday, June 09, 2011

By Lauren McLendon and Gina Cairney

The state and county’s ability to notify residents of dangerous weather doesn’t work according to at least one state official.

With at least 19 tornadoes touching down in Maryland this spring, the head of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency says the state’s early warning system is a mere “patchwork” and woefully inadequate to alert residents they’re in the path of a tornado.

Montgomery County, with no air raid sirens, is one of the most populated area in the state susceptible to a loss of life and property, claims state officials.

“In my personal opinion, the sirens are good at alerting the public,” said MEMA Natural Hazards Planner Rainer Dombrowsky.

“A tornado can come out of the sky,” MEMA Director Richard Muth said. “You may have a minute’s notice, two minutes’ notice if you’re lucky, so anything you can do ahead of time would help and then the key to that is practice, practice, practice,” Muth told a local ABC reporter.

Despite that caution, there are no current plans to upgrade the Montgomery County early warning system – nor is there even any consensus on what to do in the county.

Rocky Lopes, an emergency management professional and long-time Montgomery County resident, personally doesn’t recommend outdoor sirens in the county.

“It’s not physically impossible, but it would definitely be costly to put a siren system in all locations of the county,” Lopes said. “The frequency of tornadoes in Montgomery County isn’t high, so people wouldn’t remember what to do if they heard it (A siren),” Lopes said. He also added that the county’s budget wouldn’t support such a system.

Others call Lopes objections ludicrous.

The outdoor siren, according to Kelly Roney, “is the most primitive form of warning used in today’s society but we have to ask, what is the most effective way to get people’s attention? Through noise.”

Roney, a sales manager for outdoor notification warning systems, acknowledges that sirens, as a tool, are old, “but the idea, using noise to get attention, is thousands of years old.”

Lopes does remember growing up in the county with sirens, “but those sirens didn’t go off very often, except once a month for testing” he said.

With modern technology, Lopes added that nowadays, people are accustomed to getting their information from internet resources, including text messages. He said that “almost 10 years after 9/11, if a siren is sounded, people may jump to the conclusion that there’s a terror-related emergency” rather than a weather-related emergency.

“Confusion can be eliminated through using voice messages and testing in a way that doesn’t make people numb to the noise,” Roney said. The sirens can be tested silently as often as the county needs, with occasional audible tests as preferred. “This allows the county to maintain diagnostics on the equipment,” he said.

The county currently notifies people of extreme weather problems with a warning system called “Alert Montgomery” which relies heavily on the Internet to operate.

Advanced warning systems like Alert Montgomery are beneficial Lopes said, but he also admitted not everyone has immediate access to emergency alerts, and not everyone with a phone or email access sign up to receive emergency alerts. Lopes himself even said he blocks alert texts on his phone for cost reasons, and he acknowledges that he is not always near a computer.

As an emergency management professional, Lopes said that “one of the things they do is try to educate people to understand environmental cues like advancing clouds and strong winds.”

“We assume everyone has some kind of access to information, but there are people who are not always near a computer or don’t always have their phones on them,” Roney said. In situations like sporting events or over-crowded concerts, “a siren provides immediate alert, making everyone aware that something is going on,” he added. The next step people will take after the initial warning is to seek out information.

Lopes also says that the percentage of people who actually hear the sirens is small, but when the National Weather Service detects a tornado, “they’ll issue a warning which triggers every emergency alert system,” including text, email, radio, TV, and sirens. “Multiple warning systems are utilized simultaneously, so there’s no delay in who gets the message,” he said.

Like other professionals, Roney also says that there is not one single notification system that will reach 100 percent of the population, and those who rely heavily on one type of system can fail the population it is trying to protect.

 “What if I was visiting, or just moved into the area? Whose responsibility is it to ensure that I sign up for the county’s alert messaging system?” Roney added.

“With a siren, people don’t need to opt in,” Roney said, calling the siren a nondiscriminatory way of alerting people. “You don’t need a smartphone or a computer to be alerted by a siren,” he said.

Roney also suggests other educational methods to ensure the public is reminded and aware of the siren system include updating the county, and even the cities’ Facebook pages, and occasional Tweets. Roney also said public service announcements and even mailing refrigerator magnets that inform residents of what to do is very effective in educating the public.

Website promotions, commercials, advertisements, and even at a county fair are other ways Roney suggested the county can educate the public on siren systems. “It all costs some money, but you can probably get a local company as sponsor, and share some of the costs,” he said.

The cost of the equipment does vary depending on the type of system that is needed, and the environment in which the siren would be installed.

The cost in Montgomery County for a siren system could vary anywhere from $1.2 million to $3.2 million according to industry professionals – and based on what the county wanted to do and how it would maintain the system.

A popular siren system, according to Roney, is one that comes with a pre-recorded voice message. If the county installed the largest omnidirectional siren, with 10 cells, it would cost roughly about $20,000 per siren, and the sound would cover an area of about 3-4 square miles.

Roney says the equipment is built to last and withstand outdoor abuse during severe weather conditions, and because the system is electronic, “maintenance is on the low.”

According to Roney, most of the maintenance is changing the batteries, which generally needs to be done every 3-5 years. The system uses 12 volt batteries, which according to Roney, can cost about $500 for a pair.

According to Chad Hoftender, another regional sales manager of mass notification systems, the design of a siren system depends on some variables including population density, the topography of the area, what types of features are needed, and installation.

If Montgomery County were to install a T-128 siren, Hoftender estimates the county would need between 70-80 units. “At a cost of approximately $17,000 each, you are talking about $1.2 million-$1.4 million,” he said.

For those counties that have sirens, and especially in areas that have been struck by tornados this year, there is little doubt as to their efficiency. Residents in Joplin, MO had almost 20 minutes advanced warning.

With an inability to notify people directly in Montgomery County, some have asserted the best way to notify those not able to get “Alert Montgomery,” is to go door to door to notify your neighbors, a move that many call “laughable.”

“If a tornado is coming, I’m seeking shelter, not going door-to-door like Paul Revere to let everyone know the tornado is coming,” said Jack Knight, a local businessman.

Irish Hancock, the emergency management administrator in Arlington, Texas said sirens are beneficial because it can alert the residents of Arlington at one time. “We try not to sound them, but it’s very good when we do,” he said.

According to Hancock, Arlington has sirens in addition to a text and email alert system similar to Alert Montgomery. The sirens only blare out one sound, which Hancock says means seek shelter and look for a media source.

In the city, Hancock says there are 51 sirens, and cost an average of $20,000 per tower when they were installed. Yearly maintenance costs change depending on the type of maintenance needed, but on average, the city spends approximately $15,000-$20,000 per year on maintenance which includes replacing batteries, fixing or replacing sirens that have been damaged or stolen, and having a contractor come out to check on the system.

"The sirens are very limited as to what they do," Dombrowsky said. "In my personal opinion, the sirens are good at alerting the public, but with many people having air conditioning and closing their windows, you don't always hear the sirens when the windows are closed.”