St. Clair County sounded tornado sirens to ‘err on the side of public safety’

After the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency received a 911 call and police in a small village confirmed spinning storm clouds on Monday afternoon, the tornado sirens for the entire county sounded shortly after 2:43 p.m.

A tornado never formed. The National Weather Service did issue a severe thunderstorm warning with a tornado possible tag about five minutes later after being in contact with St. Clair County. However, the agency followed its protocol, and it would rather be safe than sorry, according to Director Herb Simmons.

“At the end of the day, they all agree that the alert going out was being proactive, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Simmons said. “If there’s any errors that get made, we’re going to err on the side of public safety.”

The outdoor warning sirens for all St. Clair County sounded because the weather service had not issued a tornado warning Monday afternoon. When a sighting is confirmed within an existing tornado warning, the sirens will only sound in that area under warning.

Without a tornado warning, the outdoor sirens sound in the entire county as a precaution. It’s not lost on Simmons that some see the sirens going off Monday as a mistake.

“Those would be the same people that would be complaining if the sirens didn’t go off,” he said. “Our people are human, and they are going to do what’s best for the public safety.”

The thunderstorm with tornado possible designation meant the weather service determined a tornado reaching the ground was “pretty unlikely,” but conditions could change quickly, said John Carney, a meteorologist with the St. Louis National Weather Service office.

Even without a tornado warning issued, the weather service supports St. Clair County’s decision.

“We’ve always said that if they see something that they think is actionable, that they should go ahead and sound those sirens,” Carney said.

Just last week, the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency announced it hired a third party-expert to investigate the sirens after 20 failed to sound during a March storm that produced an EF1 tornado.

That review is ongoing for the more than 100 siren locations across the county. The vendor, Boston-based ATI Systems, has been out in the field as of last week doing some “fine-tuning,” Simmons said.

To Simmons, Monday’s sirens all appearing to be functioning properly affirmed the agency’s decision to sound them, as did tests on Tuesday morning.

“Even the weatherman can’t get it right as far as which way these tornadoes will end up going,” he said. “It could be here one minute, and another minute it’s in another part of the county.”