Louisville City Wire

As part of Severe Weather Awareness Week, Louisville Metro Emergency Services announced it has added a new tool to its emergency response fleet. The new “Rapid Deployable Siren” was successfully tested today during the annual Statewide Tornado Drill.

The new outdoor siren is portable and can be used to alert the public of weather emergencies or public safety threats during large-scale events like Thunder Over Louisville, the Kentucky Derby and others. The siren lifts to a height of 30-feet to provide maximum coverage of the event area and sounds at 120 dB, resulting in the siren being heard within a ¾ mile sound radius.  

Executive Director Jody Meiman is pleased to have this new asset, especially with the growing number of major events Louisville hosts each year. “This is another tool to help us communicate and protect the residents of and visitors to Louisville.”

Additional resources in Emergency Services’ response fleet include the Mobile Emergency Operations Center, Mass Casualty Bus, Communications on Wheels trailer, ambulances, and several other all-terrain vehicles.

Statewide Tornado Drill Results

Today at 10:07 a.m. MetroSafe activated all 136 outdoor warning sirens for the annual Statewide Tornado Drill. All 136 sirens, including the new portable siren, sounded successfully.

All sirens are intelligent and have the ability to report failures or faults to Emergency Services personnel. Sirens are tested on the second Tuesday of each month at noon and most have large battery backups in case of an outage. For severe weather, sirens are activated countywide and sound in three-minute bursts until the threat has passed or the warning has expired or been cancelled by the National Weather Service.

The next monthly siren test will be Tuesday, April 9, 2024, unless inclement weather is forecasted for that day. Emergency Services will notify the public in the event of a test cancellation.

Remember, outdoor sirens are designed to warn people outdoors to seek shelter immediately and are NOT designed to warn indoor inhabitants. For this reason, Emergency Services recommends residents sign up to receive LENSAlerts, the Louisville Emergency Services Notification System, or have a battery back-up weather alert radio to monitor and receive severe weather watches and warnings.

There are three ways to sign up for LENSAlert:

Visit https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=JeffersonCountyKYEMA

Download the Smart911 app: https://safety.smart911.com/smart911app

Text “LENSAlert” to 67283 to opt-in to emergency notifications.

Original source can be found here.