STORM2K

Things get very scary in Garland, TX: Outdoor Warning Sirens in that city sit silent for 4 years after council quits funding repairs on the aging system (VERY stupid move if you ask me ). After deciding to dismantle the system years ago, city leaders reversed course. Whatever the case, it's definitely one of the many reasons why you should get a NOAA Weather Radio in your home in case outdoor siren neglect happens in your town. Then again sirens are meant to be heard outdoors.

Full Story and Video Courtesy of WFAA-TV

Additionally: Yes, there are other ways to be alerted like apps for your iPad or iPhone. But not everyone can afford that kind of technology.

Thank goodness for social media and other methods. I would be appalled at any city for this, good thing they decided to reverse course. Isn't this the same Garland leaders that wanted millions on city hall remodeling? I sense a change needed come election time.

Yet knowing that a siren can wail a warning is very comforting to Stacey Reagan. Her phone doesn’t have Internet service. And as she watched her son play baseball, she admitted she was unaware severe weather was approaching Monday evening - despite dark skies and a strong wind.

"It’s just windy - I had no idea!" she said, angry to learn the sirens in Garland don’t work. "That was security! We’ve heard them since I was little!"

Oh for crying out loud... they weren't severe. She'd have had no idea even if the sirens were working, because they wouldn't have been sounded last night.

Anyway, I've heard sirens here in Garland. On May 24th, I was able to hear the city of Dallas's sirens from my front porch... even though the tornado (reported as a large wedge tornado at the time, turned out to be an EF-0) was down in the Trinity River bottoms near I-20 and I-635 by Balch Springs, Dallas sounded them city-wide and I heard them at my house 2 miles away from the city's northeast border. The city of Garland sounded them for a severe thunderstorm last year that had 70mph + golfball size hail causing major window damage, though the core of that hit a few miles away from me up in North Garland. I know it was Garland's sirens because it was way louder than the ones Dallas had fired up. I never hear them being tested, but I know they work... I'm not a fan of sirens though, they make people think if you don't hear a siren, there's nothing to worry about, but you really can't hear them inside your house.

I'm not a fan of Code Red either. How are you going to simultaneously call 230,000 people without overloading the cell tower network? Texts won't work either, sometimes it takes several minutes for me to recieve or send a text. On Leap Day in Branson, Missouri, their CodeRed system completely failed to call anybody. Get a NOAA radio.

This is just WFAA being WFAA, trying too hard to find a controversy that's relevant to today's headlines.

I hate them sirens. When I lived in Brandon, Miss. the sirens would sound during tornadoes so I'd run outside and look for the twister....never saw one. When I lived in Hawaii back in the 80's...I had just gotten to the island and was driving through Hickham AFB near Pearl Harbor. The sirens started in the middle of the day without a cloud in the sky. Yikes....I'm thinking air raid!...it was just the monthly test......MGC

We don't have any sirens in Houston. They silenced them 40 years ago. They used to sound every Friday at noon. When I first moved to Houston I didn't know they had them. Being a cold war "veteran" the first time they went off I freaked out and thought we were having an air raid. Fortunately I was with someone who, after they stopped ROFL explained to me what it wa