It’s the second day of Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa and today’s topic is among the most heavily destruction causing phenomena with tornadoes.

Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams says the severe weather sirens are activated whenever there are 70 miles per hour or greater winds and tornado warnings. He points out that these are meant to be an outdoor warning system to alert people across the county to let them know when to move themselves indoors. Williams explains how the sirens work.

“Sirens will sound for three minutes or three full rotations and then shut off. We can activate them continuously during the storm if we know there is an actual tornado. And then there is no ‘all clear’ siren. If they quit running, it’s probably safe.” 

Williams notes that when people hear the sirens to go inside to the lowest point in a home and if you are in a park, seek shelter in a restroom because those are concrete blocks that can offer protection until the tornado warnings pass. He adds that each community within the county has one siren, except for the city of Jefferson that has five and there is an additional siren located at Spring Lake Park.

The National Weather Service will be conducting a statewide tornado drill tomorrow at 10am. Raccoon Valley Radio will have a special mock tornado drill program at that time with various interviews from our emergency services talking about tornadoes and safety precautions.