Miller looking to replace tornado sirens after failure

When two tornadoes touched down near Miller on April 30, the tornado warning sirens failed to work because the first tornado knocked out the town’s electricity, and the sirens had no other source of power. Fortunately, no one was hurt by either tornado.
To prevent a situation like this happening a second time, the city is looking into replacing its current tornado sirens with new ones that have a battery backup which will kick on automatically if the main power supply fails. During the Miller Board of Aldermen meeting on Thursday, May 9, the board and Mayor Stacy Daniels met with Bruce Fisher, of Blue Valley Public Safety, a company that sells and maintains tornado sirens.
Fisher told the board that Blue Valley had a number of used sirens, ranging in age from three to 13 years, available to sell. The sirens were previously installed at the Omaha Public Power District in Nebraska, a nuclear power plant which has been decommissioned. Since the plant’s decommissioning, Fisher told the board, Blue Valley has bought back the sirens and are now looking to sell them.
 “Our company was the company that installed all of these sirens up in Nebraska, and we’re the company that maintained all of these sirens up in Nebraska,” he said.
Fisher said the sirens have horns that produce sound at 130 decibels and a battery backup in case the main power is knocked out, as was the case with the April 30 tornadoes. He also said they would have radios which Blue Valley would install.
The cost of a used siren would be $13,950, which would include installation, something Fisher described as a “heck of a deal.” He also pointed out that tornado sirens usually have a life span of 40 years, so the used ones hadn’t even reached their half-life point yet.
As to paying for the sirens, Fisher suggested grants, such as the USDA Rural Development Grant, might provide the city with the funds to purchase the sirens. Daniels said the city would look into grant options and hold further discussion during the board’s next meeting.
In a later interview, Daniels said the incident “brought to the surface things we were not aware of.” Daniels, who works as a substitute teacher, said the day of the tornado, she learned it was coming from her phone while teaching a class.
“I was in the high school that day subbing in a classroom. I received a severe thunderstorm warning notice on my phone,” she said. “Just a short time later, the school lost power, and they began moving the students to the shelter. The next day, I spoke with Bonnie Witt-Schulte with Lawrence County Dispatch and told her the sirens never went off. After doing some research and checking time frames, it was determined there was only about a 30-second window from the time the severe thunderstorm warning was issued to when it (became a tornado warning). During that 30 seconds is when the tornado had taken out the power to our town.”