Severe Weather Siren Alert

6/22/11

The Mayor, the Columbus City Council, Columbus Police Department and the Columbus Fire Department would like to assure all residents within the City limits of Columbus that there are weather monitoring procedures and plans in place.

Working in conjunction with the Cherokee County Emergency Management Department, whenever there is potential for severe weather, the Spotters are sent to designated location throughout the county.  These trained Spotters monitor the direct impact of any storms within the county, approaching the county, or that could have an impact on the City of Columbus.  In addition trained spotters with the City Police Department operate a Mobile Monitoring system that tracks all weather conditions and storms.  This includes, but is not limited to, tornados, funnel clouds, hail, shear winds, and rain amounts.  This system allows the Officer to zoom in on storms to predict their exact location and its path as well as zoom out to see what storms are building that could be impacting the area. The Weather Spotters report back to the Fire department, where firemen are also monitoring the storm via Computer Radar.  As this information is received it is passed along to the National Weather Service for Warning/Watch activation.  If the storm will impact the City of Columbus the sirens will be sounded. 

When the sirens are sounded, it is vital to the safety of all the residents of Columbus that shelter is taken immediately.  Shelter can be found at one of the two following locations, Park Elementary School, or the Cherokee County Court House, if one is not available in your home.  If there is no time to get to one of these two locations seek shelter in a basement, the inner most room or a closet in your home.  It is important to take the sounding of the sirens seriously.  Sirens will ONLY be sounded when there is danger that will potentially impact the City of Columbus.  All dangerous storms are monitored until they leave the county.  Residents of Columbus should feel confident that trained personnel are watching every storm cell and if there is any danger to the City of Columbus the Tornado Sirens will be sounded without hesitation, but only when there is a threat to the City. 

It may be that areas of Cherokee County, outside the City of Columbus could experience severe weather that is not approaching the City.  In those instances, City sirens will not be sounded.

City of Columbus Kansas Storm Siren Activation Policy

·        Spotters are notified or activated through the  Columbus Fire Department, Cherokee County Emergency Management, or the National Weather Service

·        Activation of these warning sirens or spotters can be authorized when National Weather Service issues a tornado warning for the following counties, Ottawa, Crawford, Labette, Jasper, or Newton when the tornado path includes the city of Columbus and or the receipt of a report from a Trained Spotter of a funnel cloud or tornado approaching the City of Columbus or immediate area or if wind speed of 75 mph or greater are approaching Columbus or the immediate area of Columbus

·        The sirens will run for 3 minutes, there will be NO all Clear sounded by the sirens

·        System Siren Test is conducted every two weeks on Mondays at 12:00pm and ran for one minute, if inclement weather occurs we will test on the following Wednesday.  This test is logged and accounted for by the Columbus Fire Department