Tornado Siren Testing Scheduled For Today at Noon in Pettis County

Sedalia-Pettis County EMA will be testing their tornado sirens today at noon for about a half hour, according to EMA Director Trisha Rooda.

Rooda (pronounced Rhoda) who has been on the job for nearly seven years, said that “We've had some issues with our programming … I've had some complaints about a wailing tone .. so first responders (Sedalia Police, Sedalia Fire, Pettis County Fire and PCAD) will be helping me, as well as my EMA volunteers, we'll have somebody physically at every siren, and we're going to do short blasts, and then it will take a couple minutes to get reports back to see what they're sounding like (before sounding again) and we're going to do this about six times,” she said.

Today is the normal day for siren testing in Pettis County, but this particular session will be a little more involved. “It's a big coordinated effort with everybody,” she noted.

“I don't want people to get nervous, I just want to let everyone know ahead of time that we're testing the sirens to make sure they're all functioning correctly, and coordinating with two companies (radio and siren) and how we can resolve this problem,” Rooda said.

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Rooda said there are 14 tornado sirens in Sedalia and seven or eight in the county for a total of around 21 or 22.

One thing Rooda wanted to emphasize in a real weather emergency was that the sirens are never used to issue an “all clear” notification. The sirens are sounded during the warning period, and once that period has expired, the sirens stop sounding. There is no “all clear.”