The City of Idalou Emergency Management Team put their tornado sirens to the test Thursday.
All four sirens checked out, and Emergency Management Coordinator Adam Berry said they didn’t want to scare residents, but it’s important to make sure there’s a disaster plan in place now that severe weather season is approaching.
“You know if somebody doesn’t have any other means of notification, it’s kind of the last-ditch effort, or if you’re outside walking your dog, riding your bike, at the little league baseball game and all of a sudden it clouds up real quick and kinda catches you off guard, it might be the only means of notification.”
Berry’s team includes the Fire Chief, Police Chief, and City Administrator. They spent the morning testing the alert system, with success.
“In public safety, our citizens that we serve are our number one priority,” Berry said, “Their life, their safety…we hold that very high and we try to do everything we can to prepare for that.”
Berry said having a tornado plan in place can make all the difference in keeping your family safe if disaster strikes. Paying attention to a weather radio and social media for back-up is a good idea, because if the power goes out, the city’s sirens may not work.
“The City of Idalou does have the designation of a storm rated community through the National Weather Service, and that basically means that we’ve got plans in place on how we’re going to monitor weather, alert our citizens to severe weather and then respond to that.”
