NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Two tornado sirens are currently labeled "inoperable" in Nashville ahead of a storm system moving into the area Friday.
Four were originally out on Tuesday.
The Nashville Office of Emergency Management said the sirens are out at:
- 0 Conference Dr.
- McCrory Lane / Newsome Station Road
Repairs are in the works, but may not take place in time prior to storms Friday, officials said. Tornado sirens like these are meant to only be heard outside and not designed to be heard indoors. This is the second outage of some of the tornado sirens this year ahead of a storm. In total, the city has 113 sirens and covers 500 square miles.
Steve Larios the owner of Asphalt Beach Skate Shop, said that he worried after finding that two of the sirens that weren't working were very close to his store.
"We have customers. We're all in here, you know, we need to know to get downstairs," he said.
Larios was one of many people impacted by the March 2020 tornadoes.
"There was powerlines across the road and everything was just blown apart. Alarms were going off. Water spurting up in the air. And you know it looked like Armageddon or something," he said.
The city's Office of Emergency Management said while the sirens can be noisy, they aren't intended to heard inside. Instead experts recommend people ave multiple ways to monitor weather conditions.
A recommendation Larios said he doesn't take lightly.
"I got the Channel 5 StormShield. I have that app. I get all the notifications," he said.
But he said he knows not everybody has that luxury.
"If the sirens aren't working, not everyone is walking around with smartphones and apps," Larios said.
Since gaining the sirens in 2002, Nashville has had siren upgrades throughout the years, most recently in 2020 to make the system polygonal. Sirens go off based on the information from the National Weather Service-Nashville.
The best way to get direct weather alerts is through a NOAA weather radio, which are alerts transmitted via NWS. Cell phone carriers who manage the Emergency Alert System are dependent on those companies alone. Tennessee Emergency Management nor NWS have any control over those alerts that pop up on phones.
NewsChannel 5 also has its Storm Shield weather app. Storm Shield App provides storm-based alerts for tornado, flood, thunderstorm, winter storms and other life-threatening weather events via voice and push notifications. It is free in the app store.
MEANSis a new public safety program that enables Metro to let you know what safety actions to take when there’s danger. When you register
and provide your contact information, MEANS enables us to provide you with critical information quickly in a variety of situations, such as criminal
activity and evacuations of buildings or neighborhoods. Get the alerts you want, the way you want – cell or landline phone call, text, email or TTY.
In addition to severe weather alerts, users of the app can view NOAA severe weather alerts on the map to see where dangerous weather is happening.
