New storm-siren protocol targets more specific locations

With storms in the forecast, Jackson may get the opportunity to activate its new storm-siren protocol this week.

Jackson fire chief Jason Mouser said advances in technology have allowed authorities to better predict areas of danger during storm events, which in turn allows alarms to be used more efficiently.

“What we’ve been doing to this point is alerting the sirens whenever there’s a tornado warning issued anywhere in Cape Girardeau County,” Mouser said.

“Now with the new weather alert systems, we can tell the path of the storm system and sound the alarm without sounding all the ones that aren’t in the storm’s path,” he said.

There are 43 storm sirens throughout the county separated into northern, central and southern sectors. Nine each are in Jackson and Cape Girardeau. Southeast Missouri State University has six, and the remaining 19 are scattered throughout the surrounding areas.

Mouser said there often is no need to sound the alarm on one side of the county for a threat on the other.

“There are some times that the sun can be shining here in Jackson, but there’s a storm in another part of the county,” he said.

Furthermore, sounding alarms without proper cause risks desensitizing the residents.

“The storm sirens are made for outdoor alerting; people shouldn’t use them as a single point of storm alerting,” Mouser said. “It’s to inform people to take cover and seek other information on their phones or otherwise.”

Eight of Jackson’s storm sirens were installed in 2006, with a ninth added three years later. Mouser said the protocol shift is part of bettering emergency services in the area.

“This is something that the National Weather Service recommends as well, so we’ve been working with the National Weather Service and Cape County Emergency Management,” he said.

The sirens have not been activated so far in 2016.

“But we’ll be closely monitoring the weather over the next few days in anticipation of the storms coming into the area, it looks like,” Mouser said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627

Pertinent address:

Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO

Cape Girardeau County, MO