Halcomb: County's tornado sirens now all functional

Christopher Harris, Commonwealth Journal, Somerset, Ky.
·2 min read

May 1—Pulaski County is finally ready for the worst that spring and summer weather can bring.

Stacy Halcomb, Public Safety Director for Pulaski County, told the Commonwealth Journal on Wednesday that all 19 of the county's warning sirens were finally functional.

The last time Pulaski County faced a severe weather threat was at the beginning of April, and at that time, not all of the sirens were confirmed to be working properly yet.

That included replacements for older sirens in Eubank and Ferguson, and completely new ones in Faubush and Naomi. Additionally, there were three new sirens in the City of Somerset — located at SomerSport Park, SomerSplash and a city lift station — that still needed to be tested.

To do that, representatives from the Federal Signal company in Michigan would need to come down and give the newer equipment a final test before they can be assured to be in working order. Halcomb noted at that time that Federal Signal's visit had to wait until Somerset's sirens were fully hooked up to power.

Halcomb told the Commonwealth Journal on Wednesday that Federal Signal made their visit Tuesday and worked on the sirens to make sure everything was in order.

That also includes sirens in Mt. Victory, Science Hill, and Cain's Store, which failed to go off during a statewide test in March.

"If we have a tornado warning, we'll be able to activate those and people who live within hearing range of them will be able to hear them," said Halcomb.

However, Halcomb stressed that citizens shouldn't rely solely on the sirens, in case they're out of range or something happens to the device — lightning strikes in particular tend to be a problem, he noted.

"Weather sirens are like a big lightning magnet sticking up in the sky," he said. "Every time you have lightning storms, we're going to still have problems with them getting hit by lightning. That's been a common issue for years with them."

Instead, Halcomb recommended purchasing a weather radio, or downloading free weather apps, such as the CodeRED alert system, which one can do online at https://pcoem.pulaskigov.com/codered/.

"Have a secondary plan; don't just plan for those weather sirens to be your only option," he said. "Weather radios are ... not very expensive."