CITY AND UNIVERSITY CAN SHARE WARNING DATA

Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University are both in the process of developing some sort of emergency warning system, but there doesn't seem to be much coordination.

Representatives of an Iowa siren company were in town last week to demonstrate a siren system to the university. It delivers tone sirens and spoken warnings that can be heard well beyond the campus.

That's lucky for people who live near the university. The rest of the population faces being blown into the Mississippi River by a tornado.

City officials continue to say a siren system is too expensive, ineffective and wouldn't work in Cape Girardeau. But siren systems have changed a lot since the old fire department whistle went off every day at noon.

In an area where natural disaster is all too frequent and sometimes tragic, isn't a siren system worth another look?

Now's the time for the city and university and city to sit down and share all the information they each have about warning systems whether they be sirens, radios or cable TV.