A little more than a year ago, I blogged about public service announcements and in that post I wondered whether towns and cities in the US actually used civil defense sirens. There are some good comments in that post and I heard from several people via email who weren’t sure if sirens were actually used anymore. Most people seemed to think announcements and alerts were given primarily on TV, radio and internet now because we are so plugged in.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, we were sitting here in the office and there was some weird noise outside. Neither of us really paid it any attention, we’re still getting used to the neighborhood noise and we’re in the flight path for O’Hare arrivals – so there’s a lot of noise. After a few minutes TW looked up and said “I wonder if that’ siren is a tornado alert” – she looked at the weather and sure enough… tornado warning.
Huh. Who knew?
Last night, after we had both logged off and were laying in bed with books, the siren went off again. TW said “I wonder if that means there’s a tornado watch or warning?” I grabbed the iPhone and looked at the weather report. Warning. Huh. What exactly does that mean?
TW attempted to explain tornado safety to me but I don’t really get it. I’m not at all interested in spending time in our basement and as I reminded TW our weather radio is in Florida, with Michelle, in case of hurricanes.
I kept surfing the weather report, watching for updates, and I had absolutely no idea if the tornado warning was really a warning for us. I mean I guess it was, since the siren was blaring for awhile, but it went off so shouldn’t that mean the warning was over? And then there’s the problem that I have absolutely no idea where we are in relation to any of the cities or areas listed in the tornado warning report. Where the heck is Schererville?
TW grabbed a Chicago travel guide off of the shelf to look up some of the cities listed. None of them were. Which means what? They aren’t worth visiting if you’re a tourist? Or they aren’t all that close to Chicago?
I tweeted that I didn’t understand tornado warnings or tornadoes and rocks in my dryer volunteered to explain it all to me. chilihead shared the fact that she’s lived in Oklahoma for 35 years and only taken cover three times. And when I told them both that I was just going to resign myself to die in a tornado, in bed, with a book, they both seemed to think that was an ok plan.
So, I think I’ll stick with that. But maybe spend a little time learning some Illinois geography so at least I’ll know if my time is coming – I want to be reading a really good book.
Kingwood, WV, the little town that I grew up in, still has a siren. They test it every Saturday at noon. Creeped Chris out the first time he heard it. We had a tornado come through back in the very early 80’s. I can’t say that I remember the siren going off. It’s usually used to call the volunteer firement to the station when there is a fire.
Sounds like a good plan.
And you could even die together! How romantic is that?
You never heard the weather alert that year you spent in Anderson?
I would have absolutely no clue what to do if we got a tornado warning. Not something I’ve ever had to worry about although the weather has been very weird this year and they’ve been popping up in odd places. Wouldn’t know what to do in a hurricane either.
But blizzards and ice storms? I got those down!
Oh, the tornado siren! That brings back memories. Incidentally, they test the tornado siren on Tuesday mornings at 10 am. Or at least they did when I was a kid.
I love reading about my childhood home from your perspective. My mom also is enjoying your thoughts.