New tornado sirens fill in gaps in Cape Girardeau's coverage

Some gaps in tornado siren coverage in Cape Girardeau have been sured up by recent installations.

Using a portion of American Rescue Plan Act funds from the City of Cape Girardeau's General Fund, four new tornado sirens have been added to various parts of the city. The efforts cost around $150,000, including installation.

Randy Morris Jr., the city's emergency management director and fire chief, said the new sirens were planned years ago but funding wasn't available at the time.

The new sirens — just like existing ones across Cape Girardeau County — rotate and are meant to be heard outside anywhere within a 1-mile radius, depending on topography.

They are located near the Dalhousie neighborhood in southwest Cape Girardeau, the Twin Lakes area near Interstate 55, at Cape Jaycee Municipal Golf Course and on the water tower on LaSalle Avenue near the Rock Gardens subdivision.

The sirens near Dalhousie, Twin Lakes and the golf course are solar powered and have already been installed. The water tower siren will be electric with a battery backup, and Morris said he is hoping it will be fully operational by the test Wednesday, March 8.

The siren installation also allowed the city to switch frequencies to put the city's sirens on the same system as Jackson and the county's.

"One of the reasons we did that is our weather moves kind of southwest to northeast most of the time," Morris said.

On one system, if there is a tornado in the southwest part of the county, sirens northeast of the touchdown will be set off to provide early warning. The sirens can also be triggered remotely from the phones of emergency management officials for Cape Girardeau, Jackson and the county.

In the future, Morris said he's looking to get a siren near Notre Dame Regional High School and Eagle Ridge Christian School.

"A lot of outdoor activities going on at Notre Dame, and both of those schools, that we could probably make a little safer," he said.