I dislike this policy.

Lisa, I think it SUCKS major big time. Scaring thousands of people unnecessary is uncalled for.

If someone knows, how we can successfully protest this, please, let us know.

Moni

that does seem a bit excessive but I can understand the thought process. Our society is a CYA,cover your ass, society were everyone is scared to do anything for fear of backlash so the default decisions are way over the top. The opposite of this policy would have it critics too

I work 15 miles north of my kids school. Of course I watch the sky and radar during this time of year so I know when something is close but some people just dont pay attention. I think Tulsa is pretty similar in their policy. when the storm that went through Sand Springs not too long ago happened we had sirens going off in Bixby. There was hardly a cloud in the sky over my house.

I dislike the policy also. But I understand the thinking behind it,but it does wear you out. In the cellar out of the cellar, I have mine stocked like an apartment so I just stay down until the radar shows we are clear.

I just heard the above explanation in short form on the news. At least, they are telling everyone about this foolishness.

I do understand why this policy of setting them off citywide is bothersome. Furthermore, it almost seems like crying "wolf" if you know what I mean. If you live in OKC and have fled to your storm shelter 5 times in one day, how do you feel by the 6th time the siren sounds? Maybe some people say to themselves that nothing happened the first 5 times so they aren't going to the shelter on the 6th time. I can see where that would happen, and then what if that 6th time is the time a tornado hits their house? I don't think there's an easy answer here. Plus, we've all learned that tornadoes an take odd turns and head in a different direction from their projected path. So, how would the Emergency Management guys be fully confident in setting off the sirens in one area but not in adjacent areas?

At least y'all do have sirens. Plenty of us out in rural areas have no sirens, or the sirens are in small towns but cannot be heard by homes outside the small community's city limits.

We have a siren in our area now, installed 2 or 3 years ago, a gift to us from our local electric co-op. I believe they replaced their own siren at one of their facilities and gave us the old siren. We are extremely grateful to have it, and they not only gave it to us, but also installed the pole, mounted the siren on it, wired it up to work, and showed us how to operate it. We are so fortunate to have it. It is a couple of miles from our house, but I can hear it if the storm is not already too loud. I am not sure how the people who live across the street from the siren feel about it though.

The ultimate irony is that it is old, so has to be manually operated. You have to open the box and flip the lever to make it sound. Tim has been trying to find a way to have it converted to where it could be operated remotely but no luck on that so far. So, in order for us to sound the siren in our local community, a firefighter has to leave his or her house with a tornado-warned storm approaching and go to the fire station to unlock the control box and flip on the siren. Then, of course, after the risk passes, someone has to go turn it off. Luckily, we have a couple of firefighters who live fairly close to the station, but I still don't like the risk they're taking when they go up there to turn on the siren.

This is a huge improvement over our old warning system, in use until the electric co-op gave us this siren. The old method (which I adamantly opposed) involved firefighters getting into the fire trucks and driving up and down local roads sounding the sirens as a tornado-warned storm approached. Apparently that has been done here for decades and I think it is far too dangerous.

With NOAA weather radios in common use and storm warnings available over smart phones (although too many warnings sent to too many phones at one time can clog a cell network and keep the warnings from going through in a timely manner), local and national TV channels, radios, etc., I sometimes think that sirens aren't as necessary as they once were.