Warning sirens silent as storm slams Savannah

Oct. 25– (UPDATED, Oct. 26. An official erroneously said in the initial story that Central Dispatch did not receive a phone call from the National Weather Service, instead of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.)

Winds of 60 miles per hour were buffeting Savannah, toppling trees onto homes and cars Sunday roughly two minutes before the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Hardin County, according to E-911 Director David Alexander.

But even when the NWS warning was given at 5:46 p.m, local dispatchers never activated the city’s siren system.

"If they would have went off, we would have been taking cover. Everything was hitting the house," said a local woman who asked not to be identified for publication. "It was just a horrible noise, and I ran and got in the bath tub."

Alexander said when severe weather warnings are issued, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency ordinarily makes a phone call to Central Dispatch, advising of the approaching storm. In this instance, he said, no phone call was received because the lines were all busy fielding damage reports from the public.

Dispatchers in Hardin County do have access to multiple information sources when it comes to receiving severe weather warnings.

All either failed or were not noticed as the two dispatchers on duty fielded multiple 911 calls reporting damage and power outages.

Alexander said NWS warnings display on dispatchers’ computer screens, and the office has an "FM-Alert" unit which sounds an audible alarm.

But the FM-Alert system, which piggybacks on the signal from participating local FM radio stations, failed to activate, said Alexander and Hardin County Fire Chief Melvin Martin.

That also left local residents who have purchased the portable FM-Alert units being sold by the Hardin County Red Cross in danger of losing the opportunity to take shelter more quickly. Hardin County received a grant to establish the FM-Alert program.

Regarding the dispatchers not acting on the weather warning on their computer monitors, Alexander said, "The alert finally came through, but it may have been after the damage reports started coming in."

Many Hardin County residents use Weather Alert radios costing as little as $15 to receive audible tone warnings followed by a NWS voice broadcast advising of impending tornadoes and storms.

The Courier relied on such a radio to immediately post the severe thunderstorm warning for its 2,568 Facebook page subscribers.

The central dispatch office is not equipped with a Weather Alert radio, Alexander said, but will now obtain one.

"The phone calls have always been the most dependable," he said.

According to city and county emergency officials, no injuries were reported as a result of the storm. 

(Be sure to pick up a copy of this week's print edition, available first Wednesday night at The Courier, for further developments on this situation.)