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San Francisco Chronicle​

Even after Texas floods, S.F. has no plans to fix its defunct tsunami warning sirens

Disastrous flooding along Texas' Guadalupe River raised the question of whether a system of warning sirens could have saved lives. In San Francisco, where a network of sirens once stood ready to warn residents of tsunami risk, there are no plans to revive the old technology. Though the system has been defunct since 2019 and officials have discussed whether to fix or replace the sirens, Mayor Daniel Lurie did not include funding for it in his budget proposal that the Board of Supervisors is set to approve within weeks. The cost of repair or replacement has been estimated as high as $20 million, and cell phone alerts, while far from a perfect warning system, is the primary technology the city relies on. Still, the deadly Texas floods and the lack of a siren system there stirred debate online. 'This horrible event in Texas should be a sign for our local elected officials to take action and not divert money to other programs and get this done now,' one San Francisco resident posted on Nextdoor. The mayor's office referred the Chronicle to the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management for questions about the sirens. The department did not comment specifically on plans for the defunct warning system. Emergency officials said the siren system was 'paused for maintenance and assessment in 2019' because officials found 'much of the infrastructure was no longer functional,' and that the costs to repair it would be 'substantial.' When the sirens were turned off, the expected price tag to boost the system's security and reliability was about $2.5 million, but the money was never allocated. In 2023, then-Supervisor Aaron Peskin tried to fast-track the project with a $5 million injection of funds, but then-Mayor London Breed didn't include the funding in her budget. The cost of an entirely new system is expected to be upward of $20 million, before factoring in the operating costs, and it could continue to grow the longer the city waits. For the city, the question has been whether the system should be repaired or replaced. Lurie did not identify any funding for the repair or replacement project in his proposed budget, which seeks to close an $800 million budget gap with funding and staffing cuts. Without the sirens, the city still has other ways of communicating danger to residents. 'The recent tragic flooding in Texas is a powerful reminder of how critical it is to reach people quickly and effectively during emergencies,' emergency management department spokesperson Leah Greenbaum said in a statement. 'While Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and cell phone-based systems like AlertSF are essential tools, we know no single method reaches everyone. That's why we're continually working to improve how we alert and warn the public.' The WEA are 'short emergency messages from authorized federal, state, local, tribal and territorial public alerting authorities that can be broadcast from cell towers,' according to FEMA, while the city's own AlertSF system does the same thing but also sends text messages and more localized warnings. The department said it is 'committed to reaching as many people as effectively as possible in an emergency and continues to build on our alert and warning programs.' Former FEMA and California Office of Emergency Services emergency management expert Art Botterell said the sirens can only be part of a wider emergency response network — they can't be the only way people are notified. 'You have to look at sirens in coordination with other systems — like WEA alerts, which work well in urban environments but struggle in less developed areas,' Botterell said, like where floodwaters have wrought devastation in Texas. 'It's easy to get fixated on a single warning technology like sirens — but there is no magic bullet that works best in all circumstances.' Botterell said sirens are best for wide open areas where large crowds need to be warned of danger. Botterell said that places along the coast could use the sirens, such as Ocean Beach, where tsunami warnings should be as loud as possible. Otherwise, the sirens can actually be primitive warning systems, he said. 'Sirens are essentially a one-bit message,' Botterell said. 'They don't give you any insight into what to do next.' Botterell added that new construction techniques in the past several decades have made sirens essentially obsolete. Advances in window and insulation technology mean most homes are so closed off from the outside that sound has trouble reaching inside. Boterrell called it an 'unintended consequence' of tech advancements. Today the best warning systems are pocket-sized: everyone has a mini siren on their phone, he said. He said he's not surprised the city isn't funding a replacement for the sirens. The city's emergency management department also made clear that warnings are no substitute for good emergency planning. 'Notification is just one part of San Francisco's comprehensive emergency preparedness strategy,' the department said. 'We encourage all San Franciscans to take steps to prepare themselves and their families for disasters.'