Update: Two of the three sirens that did not sound last month are back in service.
HANNIBAL, MO. -- UPDATED: April 5 at 10:10 a.m.
John Hark, Hannibal's emergency management director, told the Hannibal Courier-Post that two of the three sirens that failed to sound last month have been repaired and are now functioning.
Click here to read the full story at Hannibal.net.
After calling in Global Technologies, the sirens located at Lindsey Drive and Route 168 & Woodland Trail were back in service.
The siren that remained out of service was in Oakwood. A lightening strike to the siren in the Oakwood area damaged the circuit board. It's been sent back to the company.
But Emergency Management Director John Hark says you shouldn't worry.
The city's 16 sirens overlap in coverage area.
He says regular tests are meant to catch and diagnose any problems with the outdoor sirens.
We would like to remind our readers that the city is still covered by 15 other sirens meant for outdoor warnings. They overlap and will still be able to alert folks when they are outside.
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UPDATED: March 25 at 11:10 p.m.
Work is being done to correct the problems on three of Hannibal's early warning weather sirens.
You'll recall during a recent test, three of the city's 16 sirens malfunctioned.
Friday technicians were at work, hoping to make the necessary repairs to get them online. Emergency Management Director John Hark says regular tests like the one last week are meant to catch and diagnose any problems with the outdoor sirens.
He says that allows the city to be prepared no matter the weather.
Emergency Management Director John Hark said, "This is exactly why we test them. Once a month weather permitting we set them off. Many things can happen to them. That's the reasons we have the monthly tests. that's the reason we find malfunctions. We get it rectified."
Although three sirens are out of commission, Hark says the city is still covered by 13 other sirens, which overlap in area.
That means everyone should be able to hear them and be warned when they are outside.
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Original Story: March 10
While the State of Missouri held its state wide tornado drill Thursday and some sirens in Hannibal didn't work, but the city's emergency management director still liked what took place.
John Hark was monitoring his radio and taking calls as the weather warning sirens were going off as part of the statewide tornado drill. He says that of the 16 sirens that are placed throughout Hannibal, nine of them were installed back in 2003. Before that, the city only had eight of them to warn people about approaching bad weather.
Click here for the full sized Google Map of all the tornado sirens in Hannibal.
"But they're truly for outdoors and the time of year when we anticipate people being outdoors, little league ball games, swimming pools, bar-b-q's, picnics, whatever it might be. That we set these sirens off and it says get inside, tune to your local news and find out what's going on," according to Hark.
And what's going on with a couple of the sirens still remains a mystery. One siren on the west side of town didn't fire all the way to full sound. But Hark still wants to emphasize that these sirens are not intended for people who are inside their house or another building.
We received several comments on our Facebook page from people who say they did not hear the sirens in their neighborhood.
"Absolutely not. They are an outdoor warning system. Now if you're fortunate enough that you live somewhere within the area of that siren and you can hear it inside your house, that's a great thing," said Hark.
He says he'll go to the sirens that didn't work properly and bump test them to see what caused them not to operate properly. Hark also added that he'll also place a call to the company that is responsible for the sirens and bring a technician on site to determine what needs to be fixed.
Missouri's statewide test originally was scheduled for Tuesday but was changed because of rain in the forecast for that day.
The drill is to encourage Missouri ans to practice seeking shelter, or to plan what they would do if a tornado was in the area.
The National Weather Service says 65 tornadoes hit Missouri last year.
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