In Peak Tornado Season, Emergency Management Coordinators Stress Being Informed

It’s peak tornado season in Wisconsin and the rest of the Midwest but weather-related emergencies can happen anytime and local governments across the state are updating their alert systems, making use of social media and apps.

Outagamie County in northeast Wisconsin is the latest to encourage its residents to buy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radios which provide severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. The radios are to serve as a backup to tornado sirens.

Alert systems vary statewide because counties and local municipalities have discretion in deciding what best suits their needs.

Langlade County in northern Wisconsin got rid of its sirens about two years ago, switching fully to a mass notification system, because of the high maintenance costs for sirens.

But the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin is in the process of installing more sirens on the reservation.

Ben Warrington, emergency management coordinator for the tribe, says text alerts are useful but require strong phone signals.

“We do have, like I said, a lot of rural areas, a lot of areas where we have recreation and people around the lake complexes,” he said. “So with those people being outdoors, we really look at having the redundancy.”

Sauk, Green and Jackson counties are a few of the counties that have adopted notification services like Nixle. Residents plug their zip code into a website and are sent text alerts about extreme weather.

Kristina Page is the emergency management coordinator for Jackson County, which uses the modern and more traditional alerts like outdoor tornado sirens.

Page said residents should actively seek out emergency information sources.

“Have multiple ways to get notifications because most of them are based on technology and technology does fail sometimes,” Page said.

Still, no one method is perfect, says Page. Tornado sirens can only be heard outside and text services require working phone signals.

Many emergency management coordinators emphasize redundancy and encourage residents to learn what alert systems are in place at the local level.