4 days ago
Belton addresses outdoor warning system malfunction
BELTON, Mo. — A Cass County suburb said its outdoor warning sirens are working once again. Those same sirens did not immediately activate Tuesday as tornado warnings were issued.
On Thursday, people in Belton may have heard outdoor warning sirens going off, but it was just a test. We're told the issues that happened on Tuesday are now resolved.
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The City of Belton shared video with FOX4. On Thursday, the city tested the outdoor warning sirens as part of ongoing troubleshooting efforts making sure the system works properly.
This, after their sirens didn't immediately sound Tuesday, according to Director of Emergency Management Claire Canaan.
'It's not a good thing to find, but it's also a good thing to find because we can address it and help save lives,' Canaan said.
On Tuesday, when a tornado warning was issued for parts of Cass County, including Belton, Canaan said they recognized a disruption in the signal that sets off the sirens throughout the city.
Her team tried a backup method, which also didn't go through. Finally, a secondary method of activation worked.
The issue, 'Some equipment that we needed to update, the radio needed some maintenance done to it,' Canaan said.
Crews spent the next two days ensuring the equipment was connected and work the way it's supposed to.
Canaan said on Thursday city staff stood at all 18 siren locations across Belton to monitor and confirm performance.
'They all worked the way they're supposed to,' she said. It's important because it is a method of notification for people. It is a part of our multiple alerting warning for severe weather and when that doesn't work, we do try to rely on that but we always try to emphasize to have multiple methods of notification for reasons like this.'
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'We were also able to get staff at each one of our siren locations and be able to visually tell us that, 'Yes, that siren is operating the way it was supposed to.' If it had a message that it put out that, that was working correctly, that it was sounding, it was turning, that it was in operation,' Canaan said, 'that everything was working correctly.'
They tested the outdoor warning system in May. She said at that time, it was good to go.
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