STORM-WARNING SYSTEM USING CABLE-TV SHOULD BE WEIGHED

Throughout this week -- Severe Weather Alertness Week -- there have been efforts to educate schoolchildren and others about what to do in the event of a tornado warning.

One of the things that hasn't been taught this week in Cape Girardeau County is what to do when the tornado sirens go off. There aren't any such warning devices in the county. Dave Hitt, the county's emergency management director, says sirens aren't necessarily the best way warn of dangerous weather situations, mainly because the sirens can't be heard indoors in many instances.

Hitt is right, of course. Today's homes and businesses and factories tend to be closed tight because of modern heating and air-conditioning systems. Only residents and workers very close to a storm siren would be able to hear it indoors. And it would take many such sirens at tremendous cost to make enough noise to warn everyone adequately.

The city of Cape Girardeau tried storm sirens a few years back. The costly system was a disappointment, because the sirens couldn't be heard by a large number of residents even when they were outdoors.

Areas of Scott and Perry counties have weather sirens, but Cape Girardeau County relies on weather spotters whose eyewitness information is forwarded to radio and television stations.

Another warning system, which we have suggested before, would reach residents inside their homes or offices -- anywhere where there is a television set turned on that is hooked up to cable-TV service. This system allows emergency personnel to break in on all cable broadcasts simultaneously to warn viewers of threatening weather condition.

Such a system, combined with other warnings such as the sirens of emergency vehicles cruising city streets, would reach far more people in Cape Girardeau County than currently receive timely warnings of tornadoes.

Severe Weather Alertness Week seems like a good time to reconsider the possibility of improvements to the weather-warning system. A better warning system plus good education efforts could save lives.