Elgin won’t be making changes to its outdoor emergency siren system despite the confusion some residents have voiced about multiple activations during recent storms.
Instead, city officials plan to reinforce a simple message.
“You don’t need to know at the moment those sirens go off why they are going off,” Fire Chief Robb Cagann said at Wednesday night’s Elgin City Council meeting. “You need to do two things: seek shelter, then get more information. We want you to get to a safe space.”
The outdoor emergency siren system was upgraded three years ago to include new automated technology linked to the National Weather Service. Sirens are activated when the weather agency issues warnings for tornadoes or severe thunderstorms with winds of 75 mph or hail that measures 1.75 inches or more.
Residents who have complained on social media said they believed the sirens should be activated when tornadoes are spotted. To do so when other conditions exist is akin to the fable of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” suggesting that people may not take them seriously if they go off during every big storm.
Cagann and fire department staff said they looked at ways to address concerns and evaluated several ideas, including using different tones so residents could differentiate between tornadoes and severe thunderstorms and establishing warning zones throughout the system.
Cagann said he favored using different tones until he learned it wasn’t practical.
“I love(d) the idea. It was my number one thought until I started researching,” he said. “I can’t find one resource that says we should do it.”
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The problem is new residents or people visiting the city may not understand the meaning behind the different sounds and there’s not way to educate them during a severe weather incident, Cagann said.
“Everybody knows the one sound for an emergency warning,” he said. “It could be a tornado. It could be a thunderstorm. What our talking points are is to seek shelter and seek more information.
“The reality, in our view, is our job is to keep the community safe,” he said. The best way to do that is notify residents of severe weather, including potentially damaging thunderstorms, he said.
Rather than changing the city’s 25 outdoor emergency sirens, the plan is for Elgin to reinforce the message through a campaign that involves social media, TV and other marketing, he said.
The campaign also stresses that the sirens are geared toward people who are outside during extreme weather, alerting them to seek shelter, Cagann said. Those inside homes or buildings should find a safe place away from windows and obtain updates through TV, radio or other means, he said.
They’re also urging residents to sign up for weather notification through alerts.smart911.com, he said.
The issue is important because of the increased number of tornado warnings happening in the area, Cagann said. The EF-1 tornado that struck neighboring Bartlett on June 11 is a good example of something that “spawned out of nowhere,” he said.
Cagann received an all-clear message for a tornado warning only to learn that a tornado hit a mile away from Elgin’s city limits less than two minutes later, he said.
“Weather is very unpredictable,” Cagann said. “What we are talking about very much matters.”
Illinois has had 196 reported tornadoes so far this year, the highest number in the nation, he said. Mississippi comes in second with 83, followed by Texas with 51 tornados. Texas usually has the highest number, he said.
“We are more than doubling every other state at this point,” Cagann said. “We had the warmest and most active April on record in Illinois.
“The weather is changing. I’m not a meteorologist. I’m not here to explain all the weather phenomena and why this is happening. But it’s very clearly happening,” he said.
Ironically, Cagann’s discussion about the siren situation took place after sirens were activated by an incoming severe thunderstorm about 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, just as the council meeting was starting. Those in attendance took shelter in the basement of Elgin City Hall until the weather cleared.
There were no tornadoes, but strong winds downed trees and power lines.
“Robb, you know how to do a presentation,” Mayor Dave Kaptain joked about the timing of the incident and the fire chief’s discussion.
Cagann said the council did exactly what it was supposed to do when sirens are activated.
“You, as elected leaders, are leading by example,” he said. The fact that the council suspended the meeting to take shelter when the siren sounded “demonstrates exactly what we say needs to happen. I think it’s great for the community to see that,” he said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.