Twinsburg Sees Advantages, Misconceptions With Severe Weather Siren

With summer coming on strong, it sometimes creates perfect conditions for severe storms to hit the Twinsburg area. One of the ways the city informs residents of impending severe weather is through the system of alert sirens.

When the dispatchers are notified of severe weather conditions or sightings from the National Weather Service, an officer in the field, or a neighboring community, the sirens are set off to alert residents.

“The sirens are designed to notify people who are primarily outdoors,” said Richard Racine, Twinsburg’s fire chief. “There seems to be a misconception that you can hear it inside.”

There are nine sirens positioned in the area; seven in the city and two in Twinsburg Township. In most places inside the city or township, you are within a half mile of a siren.

“You should hear it but you have to be listening for it,” Racine said. “You should know what the sky’s doing, too.”

Racine said another common misconception about the siren is that if it goes off a second time, everything is fine.

“If it goes off again, it’s not an all-clear,” Racine said. “It means there’s another sighting.”

Because this is the season for severe weather, Chief Racine offers residents tips on how to stay safe during rough storms:

• Stay connected - Racine suggests to buy a battery-powered weather warning radio, which can be fairly cheap, to know what’s going on if you lose power during a storm.
• Seek shelter - If you hear the warning, it’s best to go to your basement or the center of your building, if there is no basement. “What you want to do is get as many walls between you and the outside,” Racine said. “Definitely stay away from the windows.”

If it happens to be the first Saturday of the month and you hear the siren go off, don’t fret, that’s the usual time they test the system to insure it works properly.

“All of ours work,” Racine said. “So that’s good news.”