Something you will not see in Thornton - tornado sirens.

In yesterday’s Northglenn-Thornton Sentinel, the paper wrote about tornado sirens and warning systems in the north metro area – or rather the lack thereof.  Appropriately titled “Sound of silence”, the article points out that Thornton is not alone in their lack of any sort of severe weather warning system. 

Westminster, Northglenn, Federal Heights and Adams County leave citizens to fend for themselves as well.  Brighton and Commerce City have siren systems to protect residents of their cities.

Emergency managers cited a number of reasons including the ever-present cost consideration and the fact that severe weather season in Colorado is relatively shortlived.  It is the opinion of ThorntonWeather.com that these thoughts are all extremely shortsighted and cities are risking their citizens’ lives. 

One of the more interesting sections of the article reflects that:

Mike Reddy, captain of emergency management for the Westminster Fire Department, said Mother Nature often provides enough warning for those people who are caught outside during severe weather.

“To me it’s like lightning. If you are out playing golf and there is lightning, it’s best to go inside where it’s safe,” Reddy said. “Tornado sirens are a very expensive investment that it turns out are used three weeks out of the year.

With all the media coverage and alternative approaches, there are more effective ways for people to be notified.”

Reddy added that the information he gets from dispatch about severe weather can be found on the local news channel or Internet.

Do tornadoes strike in the Denver area? 177 have been recorded in the metro area alone since 1950. They have occurred as early as April 10th and as late as October 14th. Map courtesy TornadoPaths.org.

Captain Reddy may wish to familiarize himself with the history of tornadoes in Colorado.  Since 1950, tornadoes have been recorded as early as April 10th and as late as October 14th – in the Denver metro area alone.  Further, through yesterday, 177 twisters have been recorded in the metro area during that same time frame so despite what some may say, they are not rare. 

If a warning system saved your life or the lives of your family, wouldn’t it be worth it?

We recently wrote an article on Examiner.com detailing the current state of emergency warning system across the metro area.  While we had similar results in our talks with various cities that the Sentinel did, we also found that many communities are taking advantage of lower-cost, high tech solutions that incorporate notifying residents of emergencies using email and text messaging.  These types of systems have the added benefit of having multiple uses and can be used to notify residents about other significant events including Amber Alerts, wildfires, chemical spills, civil disasters and terrorist attacks.

We recognize that siren systems are expensive and limited in their reach.  However, we applaud those communities that are taking steps using other methods and implore Thornton and other north metro area municipalities to do the same. 

What do you think?  Should north metro communities invest in emergency alert systems to protect their citizens?  Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

For more information:

• Examiner: Will your city or county warn you about extreme weather?
• Examiner: Denver area community emergency notification systems – By city and county
• Northglenn-Thornton Sentinel: Sound of silence (PDF)

Tags: Sentinel, Sirens, tornado, Warning Sirens

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 5:01am MDT and is filed under Thornton Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.