Highland, Indiana seeks to find out problem with sirens that didn't sound for tornado
The town of Highland in Northwest Indiana was still cleaning up Monday from the damage wrought by a tornado that touched down last week.
Meanwhile, town leaders have been trying to find out why all the tornado sirens did not work during the severe storms Wednesday.
There are six air-raid sirens around town in Highland — and when they go off, they are very loud. But people living near two of the sirens did not hear them go off at all, and five nights later, those two sirens were still malfunctioning.
An EF-0 tornado, with winds of 65 to 85 mph, touched down Wednesday evening in Highland near U.S. Highway 41 and 45th Street.
It was one of eight tornadoes that touched down in the CBS News Chicago viewing area during the storms, and four in Northwest Indiana alone — three others ripped through Gary on the same evening.
In Highland, the tornado sent huge trees toppling onto homes. Karen Parson will never forget what the skies looked like that night.
"I looked out in the backyard. The sky was really nasty. Winds were picking up, and then the tornado sirens went off," said Parson. "So I'm like, OK, this is real."
Parson heard the sirens in her neighborhood, and she immediately took cover.
"I mean, that would be horrible, because people wouldn't know," she said.
Parson stepped outside to find homes on the block damaged. On Monday, debris still littered the curb on her block.
But she was perplexed to hear that all sirens did not sound clearly.
"That's not good," Parson said. "I don't see how that happened in Highland. They test it every Saturday."
It turns out that despite testing the sirens weekly, it was not until that EF-0 tornado hit that town leaders discovered two sirens had never been sounding during the tests — and failed during the tornado.
"The reasons for that are not fully known yet," said Highland town attorney John Reed. "It's being investigated."
The village's attorney told CBS News Chicago that residents alerted emergency management that they heard faint siren warnings. But those two sirens in specific neighborhoods did not sound.
"And even though they heard sirens, it wasn't as loud and wasn't necessarily the one, you know, five doors away," Reed said.
It was determined on a weekly test, conducted days after the tornado hit, that those two sirens were not working. A vendor came out, and Reed said they still cannot pinpoint what is wrong.
But he assured residents the town is determined to find the source, adding the town has the funds to repair whatever the issue is.
"Public safety issues are paramount to everyone," Reed said, "and so, I think all right steps are being taken."
So what are t hose steps? From here on out, a public works employee will now stand next to all six sirens in Highland during weekly test to ensure that they are making noise — and that residents are not just hearing other sirens far away.
While the town knows the two sirens are broken, officials cannot say for sure how long the sirens in question were not working properly.
