After Sunday night’s severe weather prompted the manual activation of Paris’ outdoor warning sirens, officials are now clarifying when and why the sirens are used, as many residents were left confused.
“The outdoor warning sirens are activate to protect lives whenever there is a significant weather/outdoor threat, not just tornadoes,”said Lamar County Office of Emergency Management. “This includes extremely dangerous winds, large hail, or other severe weather that can be just as life-threatening.”
The four main criteria for activating the outdoor warning sirens are:
- tornado warnings or confirmed rotation
- reports of hail 1.5 inches in diameter
- sustained wind speeds of 70+ mph
- hazardous chemical spill/other emergencies
“Over time, outdoor warning sirens have been referred to as tornado sirens, and in Paris, they were installed after the 1982 tornado—so it’s understandable that people might mistakenly call them that,” said Jon McFadden, Public Information Officer for the City of Paris.
Officials are also reminding the public that outdoor warning sirens are meant to alert people who are outside — not those indoors.
“Since outdoor sirens can be hard to hear indoors due to background noise and are intended to alert those outside, we recommend residents have additional alert methods like TV, radio, phone notifications, etc. and to sign up to the City of Paris or Lamar County RAVE Mobile Safety Alerts.”
The City of Paris and Lamar County RAVE Mobile Safety Alerts allows the city and county to send messages by phone, text, and/or email via RAVE Alerts and Smart 911.
Citizens can choose the contact method they prefer and type of notifications they wish to receive.
McFadden said officials will be able to send notifications when they manually activate the outdoor warning sirens to notify residents why they did and what the warning is (i.e. hail, dangerous winds, tornado, etc.).
To sign-up for RAVE Alerts, click here
“We don’t take these decisions lightly,” said Lamar County OEM, “Every siren activation is made with one goal in mind — keeping out community safe.”
