Just two weeks before severe thunderstorms with strong winds hit central Ohio on Aug. 11, Franklin County Commissioners authorized spending $439,050 for the county Emergency Management & Homeland Security to replace old warning sirens with new ones and relocate some of them.
After widespread damage occurred in Hilliard, Upper Arlington and the Columbus neighborhoods of Clintonville, Olde Towne East, Linden, East Side, Topiary Park Downtown, the South Side and Scioto Southland, residents were left questioning why no tornado sirens were activated by Franklin County the morning of Aug. 11.
Jeff Young, director of Franklin County Emergency Management & Homeland Security, spoke with The Dispatch to explain why no tornado siren was triggered during
a storm that knocked down trees, damaged homes and businesses, and flipped vehicles, and the need for warning siren replacement and repairs.
Rotational winds that are trademark of tornadoes not confirmed
What National Weather Service officials and others believe struck the Columbus area on Aug. 11 was a derecho — fast-moving bands of severe thunderstorms with destructive winds that can reach the speeds of tornadoes. The weather service has said there was no radar-indicated tornado detected in the mass of widespread storms.
No tornado warning was issued by the weather service, Young told The Dispatch. As the county Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency works in conjunction with the weather service, the county did not activate its tornado sirens. Earlier the morning of Aug. 11, the weather service issued a tornado warning for Union County but then withdrew the warning when radar and conditions showed no evidence of a tornado.
Young emphasized that does not mean there was not significant wind damage. But from what he's seen, Young said the damage was from straight-line winds that reached a maximum reported speed in the county of 82 miles per hour at John Glenn Columbus International Airport at 10:43 a.m. Aug. 11. Those winds are "extremely damaging," Young said, but may not have the same rotation as tornado winds would.
"I know there have been some anecdotal reports of people seeing what they believe is a tornado, but I believe the National Weather Service is reviewing their data and as of yet have not found any indication of rotation or a tornado," Young said.
County plans to proactively replace and repair warning sirens
Within Franklin County, there are 198 warning sirens all owned by municipal jurisdictions. The county Emergency Management agency manages, operates and tests the sirens. A weekly warning siren test is normally conducted each Wednesday at noon.
Some of the warning sirens in Franklin County have exceeded their service life, Young said, and his agency is unable to reliably access repair parts for those older sirens. To address the issue, the county is "systematically working" with each jurisdiction to replace old sirens with new ones, Young said.
The nearly $440,000 in funding from the commissioners that was approved in late July is about replacing end-of-service-life equipment, Young said.
"As a function of our budget, the commissioners have to approve that so we can then get the new sirens and pay to have them installed," Young said.
The funding is needed to proactively replace sirens, so the county can avoid having any sirens out of service for lack of repair parts.
"None of the sirens being replaced are currently out of service," Young said. "But we want to make sure that we are proactively doing everything that we can to maintain the system fully functional."
Dispatch Reporter Nora Igelnik can be reached at nigelnik@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Before storms, Franklin County approved nearly $440k to replace, repair warning sirens
