Siren Malfunction Overnight Scares Johnson County Residents

My wife Kathy woke me up about 12:30 last night to tell me she heard an odd siren sound and some muffled announcement she couldn't hear. By the time I was roused I couldn't hear the siren or announcement. I assumed it was Warrensburg Police telling someone to pull over on their squad car's loud speaker, rolled over and went back to sleep. I was wrong. Turns out the Johnson County outdoor warning sirens self activated about 12:30AM CDT this morning, and understandably, it freaked some residents out including my wife.

Johnson County EMA and Warrensburg Police Facebook posts explaining the errant warning to residents contain many comments from freaked out residents. Like this comment on the Johnson County EMA post from Shelly Amos, "Thanks for the update. Actually heard this one (for once!) and jumped out of my skin." Or this comment from Mellssa Campbell, "Thank you! I'm about to puke from the scare and I live 3 miles out of town!" There were similar posts on the Warrensburg PD Facebook post as well. (We'll post the Facebook threads at the end of this article.)

Some folks in Warrensburg were surprised by the warning that did go out since it wasn't the normal tornado / severe weather siren we're used to hearing. Johnson County EMA took this opportunity to talk about the differnet types of warnings Warrensburg's sirens are capable of broadcasting:

"The sirens within the City of Warrensburg not only have the capabilities of alerting due to severe weather but can broadcast other information such as shelter in place emergency instructions due to an active threat, civil defense emergency or hazardous materials incident." You can learn more and see an example in Johnson County EMA's Facebook post below.

One other thing Johnson County EMA suggested people do is sign up for RAVE alerts from the County. It's another way for the county to reach out and keep in touch with you before, during and after emergencies. And probably siren malfunctions like last night. You can do that here. If you reside in Pettis County you can sign up for Nixle alerts which are sent by the Pettis County Sheriff. You can do that here.