20 St. Clair County sirens failed to sound before March tornado; review underway
Officials have been investigating the countywide outdoor warning system since the sirens in southern St. Clair County did not sound as they should have during an early spring storm.
The malfunction happened just before an EF1 tornado touched down in that area March 15.
County Emergency Management Agency officials announced this month that they hired a third-party expert to look at the system in addition to an investigation by the siren company, Boston-based ATI Systems.
On Monday afternoon ahead of more severe weather, they said they are continuing to monitor the system for issues in a message to the community.
In interviews, representatives from the county and ATI Systems described a communication issue within the system after the company’s investigation concluded in early April. As a result, ATI Systems adjusted the computer at the county control station, the officials said.
“We’ve had engineers from the vendor here. We’ve had local people working with them. We’ve had subject matter experts come in to address things with (the) radio system and look at those components,” Bryan Whitaker, assistant director of the county EMA, said in Monday’s virtual briefing on the weather.
During a storm, individual sirens within the system are supposed to automatically sound when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning for those specific locations.
St. Clair County EMA Director Herb Simmons said 20 sirens in the southern part of the county did not sound when that area was under a tornado warning, which started at 5:19 p.m. on March 15. It was about half an hour before a tornado touched down in New Athens at 5:47 p.m.
Sirens alert people who are outside that dangerous weather is approaching and they should head inside. Emergency management leaders intervened and ultimately found another way to activate the sirens, in addition to other notifications sent to residents.
Winds up to 90 miles per hour damaged roofs and downed tree limbs and power lines in the village of nearly 2,000 people, but no injuries were reported.
How local EMA responded to siren malfunction
Simmons recalled hearing from community emergency management coordinators in New Athens, Freeburg and Millstadt that each of their town’s sirens were not sounding after the National Weather Service alert during the March 15 storm.
Manually activating the individual sirens in the affected areas also did not work. So St. Clair County EMA leaders decided to sound all 122 sirens across the county, which finally activated the malfunctioning ones.
It meant some people were hearing sirens after the threat had already passed their community. But Simmons said it was worth it because it gave New Athens residents some warning to seek shelter if they had not already done so.
The sirens sounded about 15 minutes before the tornado hit, according to New Athens emergency management coordinator Edwin “Edd” Cockrell Jr.
“It was a little too close for comfort for us, being the village that did get hit by a tornado,” Cockrell said. “Luckily, we did have some kind of notification go out to our residents.”
Before the sirens, residents may have received an automated cellphone message from the National Weather Service if their wireless carrier participates in the nationwide emergency alert program.
New Athens also sent out phone call, texts and email alerts through its CodeRED emergency notification system to any residents who signed up, according to Cockrell. He is the son of St. Clair County Board member Ed Cockrell of District 20 in southern St. Clair County.
In nearby Freeburg, emergency management coordinator Gene Kramer said the village activated two sirens it maintains as a backup to the countywide system, in addition to sending out CodeRED alerts.
After the March storm, both emergency management coordinators said they were eager for news about what caused the siren malfunction in their towns, as more springtime storms are likely.
“Just from our own statistics that we keep on every warning for Freeburg, the maximum number of tornados occur in mid-April and May,” Kramer said.
Siren company’s investigation concludes
In an interview, ATI Systems founder and former CEO Ray Bassiouni blamed the March 15 malfunction on a county contractor’s lack of training that led to improper installation and maintenance of the siren system.
ATI Systems provided additional training for the contractor while company representatives were in town investigating, according to Bassiouni.
Simmons contended that the county regularly tests the sirens for issues. It has sought fixes from ATI Systems at least eight times following those tests since installations began in 2023, according to the Emergency Management Agency’s monthly reports to the County Board.
Cockrell noted that New Athens’ sirens had sounded during a March 11 storm, just four days before the March 15 failure. When asked about it, Bassiouni said the county did not provide records related to siren tests and activations for the company to analyze.
The county asked ATI Systems engineers to document everything they did during the investigation. The company had not completed the requested report as of mid-April, according to Simmons.
Whitaker announced an additional review of the system was underway during an April 20 virtual briefing to update the community on the sirens.
“We have now solicited a third-party company that has not been affiliated with the siren company or with us but they are subject matter experts in outdoor warning sirens,” Whitaker said in the briefing.
Simmons also said annual preventive maintenance by the county was due to start in July, but officials asked the contractor to start early — in late March — because of the recent malfunction.
St. Clair County signed a $2.49 million contract with ATI Systems in late 2022 to replace 79 existing sirens across the county and install 43 new ones. Federal relief funds from the American Rescue Plan paid for the sirens.
It took the company more than two years to complete the project. Installations were delayed largely by supply chain issues, according to past statements by the company and county officials.
Bassiouni has since been dismissed as ATI Systems’ CEO as part of a settlement in a lawsuit the Massachusetts Attorney General filed against him and his company in 2023.
The lawsuit alleged Bassiouni coerced an employee into a sexual relationship and that he fired her and threatened to have her deported when she became pregnant and refused to have an abortion.
Bassiouni denied the allegations but agreed to the settlement to close the case without a trial last year.
Under the terms of the settlement, Bassiouni is legally prohibited from working for ATI Systems. He said he currently serves as an adviser, and the daily operations are now handled by his son Tarek Bassiouni and company vice president Antonio Cracchiolo.
This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 11:54 AM.
