Source: City of Broken Arrow
The City of Broken Arrow has one of the finest outdoor warning siren systems in northeastern Oklahoma, and it’s about to get even better with the addition of 10 new, state-of-the-art sirens.
This week, City of Broken Arrow Emergency Management Director Jamie Ott learned a Notice of Intent has been approved by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management that will provide grant assistance for additional sirens from the State Hazard Mitigation Funding Program.
“Basically, we are paying for three sirens, but we will get seven others for a total of 10 additional sirens,” Ott said at a City Council Meeting held Feb. 15.
Voters approved the 2018 GO BOND that included an upgrade to the outdoor warning system.
Through the Hazard Mitigation Plan that is currently in place, the City will utilize the GO Bond Sale Package to pay 25 percent of the cost of the siren improvements and the rest will be paid for by the grants.
Ott says the city will be upgrading 10 of the currently installed Whelen Vortex R4 four-cell sirens. They have a rotating horn that can be heard in one direction with a 6,000-foot estimated range of sound.
The new sirens will be Whelen WPS2910 10-cell sirens with 360-degree sound coverage that can be heard in any direction at the same time at 4,000 watts with a 6,100 foot estimated range of sound.
They have a solar powered recharging system built in and Ott says they will be beneficial in places where PSO cannot get in to provide power.
“The ones that will be replaced are ones the team has determined to have issues,” Ott said.
Streets and Stormwater, Information Technology, and Emergency Management strive to keep our residents, businesses, and stakeholders safe during times of severe storms by utilizing and maintaining our outdoor warning system with 56 outdoor sirens strategically placed throughout the City.
The City of Broken Arrow tests its sirens on the first Wednesday of the month at 12 p.m., between March and October, when skies are clear.
However, if one of the sirens has a malfunction, the system has a redundancy and outdoor notification coverage.
Though the city has received approval to apply for the grant, Ott says there may be a delay in the installation due to supply-chain issues nationwide.
“The telephone poles that we install them on, and some of the parts are hard to come by right now because of the disasters that have been going on back east with the tornadoes,” Ott said. “We are working on that.”
With some of the sirens to be upgraded, the City may be able to reuse current poles to save on cost.
Please remember outdoor warning signs are meant as an alert for those who are outside and away from TV, radio, or smartphone when an alert is issued.
Do not rely on hearing sirens if you are already indoors. And finally as a reminder, if you have a storm shelter please be sure to register it at https://www.brokenarrowok.gov/government/emergency-management/storm-shelter-registration.
Homes with storm shelters and/or Safe Rooms certainly have an added measure of protection for those living there. However, if disaster should strike and tree limbs and other debris cover the shelter or safe room, there could be an added problem of people being trapped inside.
In order to help Broken Arrow emergency responders be sure that citizens in any of those damaged areas are safe and sound, the City is maintaining a register of storm shelters and safe rooms. If you have such a facility and have not yet registered it with the city, please take time to do so.
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