Warning siren malfunction isolated

A storm warning siren malfunction that happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning left residents confused, and a City of Newton official said it’s been pinpointed to one culprit siren that was recently installed.

Director of Public Works Keith Laube said Wednesday a new warning siren, located near Union Cemetery on Newton’s northwest side, sounded at around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning at a time when there were no major weather concerns in central Jasper County.

“We installed a couple of new sirens this spring within the city, but the one near Union Cemetery seems to have a mind of its own,” Laube said. “We’ve had some people come out to take a look at it, and we thought we had it resolved, but we’ll be in touch with them again.”

The siren continued, even though local residents didn’t receive any type of text, phone or email alerts about dangerous weather.

Even though the city contacted both the installer and manufacturer about the issues, there is no guarantee the growing pains of bringing in a new siren are over, so another malfunction could occur.

Laube said it’s not surprising to anyone who works with warning sirens to have trouble getting all the components to work together well. It takes patience.

“Sometimes, it takes a while to work all the bugs out,” Laube said. “We want sirens to be set up so that they be set off quickly, when we need it, but not be so sensitive as to create false alarms. It’s not always easy.”

The only public notifications sent out Wednesday morning, generated separately by both the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office and the Newton Police Department, were social media notices that the siren was malfunctioning and there was no tornado or other storm danger in the area.

The Jasper County Emergency Management Agency did not generate any direct warnings related to the siren. EMA Director Jim Sparks said any first-responder can send out an alert through the Wireless Emergency Notification System, or WENS, but Wednesday, that might have created more problems.

“It could have been used, but would probably have aggravated many more people than those that were concerned,” Sparks said. “That is totally dependent on the nature of the emergency. WENS is not activated locally for weather warnings.”

Sparks said WENS can be activated by any authorized public safety entity or dispatchers at any time there is imminent danger — real or potential — to the public. The use of WENS for non-emergency information is limited to the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“We had a number of people call and unsubscribe to WENS because they were woken up at 3 a.m. to be informed a prisoner that escaped was captured,” Sparks said.

It was at least the second time this year the Union Cemetery siren had been set off inadvertently, with no severe weather near.

Laube thinks the cause of the malfunction comes from the siren picking up a frequency from a nearby community’s warning system, then sounding as if it had been activated. He said he’ll be in touch with the manufacturer and the installer to get the problem resolved.

Laube said the siren located near the corner of East 12th Street North and North 11th Avenue East is also extremely new. There have been no recent malfunctions with that siren or any others in the city.

There are about 12 sirens within the city of Newton.

Adding to the confusion was the citywide monthly test of the sirens, scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month. The 10 a.m. testing Wednesday went flawlessly, Laube said and will continue to be done on that same schedule.

While he realizes many people traditionally refer to the sirens as “tornado warnings,” Laube said the sirens could be activated for tornado, severe hail, straight-line wind and other severe weather warnings. The siren is a cue to take cover.

Those who wish to get weather warnings through WENS can sign up on the WENS page to get a direct notification from the National Weather Service when they issue a weather warning. The user can select tornado or severe thunderstorm warning, or both.

Sparks pointed out there is no universal means of activating all the sirens in the path of a storm. Newton’s sirens are independent of any others in Jasper and surrounding counties.

“All sirens are owned and under the control of the city or jurisdiction they are in,” he said. “We do not own, operate, or maintain sirens through the emergency management office. The county dispatch does activate the sirens per agreement with the cities in the warned area when they receive a tornado warning from the NWS.”

Sparks stressed sirens are only intended for people who are outside and can hear the noise.

“Folks should not rely on outdoor sirens for notifications if they are indoors,” Sparks said. “Weather radios or apps on phones are a much more reliable means of warning.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com