Tornado Warnings and Sirens (buying, codes, price)

[RoslynHolcomb]

I realized earlier in the tornado season that if North Dekalb has warning sirens we can't hear them at our house. Last night when things got ugly we saw the warnings for Cherokee, Cobb and Fulton on TV and assumed the storm was headed our way, but never saw any warning for Dekalb and went to bed. Then around midnight we heard an unbelievably loud roaring sound. At first I thought it was a jet engine taking off, it was that loud. We're right under the flight pattern for Peachtree-Dekalb Airport, but I don't think anything that big flies out of there. Plus, with that storm only a nut would be flying. So, I've concluded it was a tornado or the straight line winds from hell.

Having been raised in this general area, I'm not particularly tornado phobic, but that was pretty scary, I must say. Does anyone know if North Dekalb has sirens and where they're located? I'm thinking about getting one of those weather alert radios, but don't relish the thought of being blasted in the middle of the night for warnings a hundred miles away. Does anyone have one of those radios, and are they as big a pain in the heiny as I've imagined? Who sells them locally? Thanks for feedback.

[BobKovacs]

Definitely get the radio- they're available at any Kroger for $30. You can program it to only receive alerts for your county, so you would have gotten the "Tornado Watch" alert at about 9:30 last night, but not the "Tornado Warning" alert that sent us to the basement in Cherokee County at 10:45 last night. While the sound is somewhat startling, IMO it's a good thing to have- the storm last night did some pretty major damage around 4 miles south of our house.

When you get a warning signal, it'll tell you where in the county the storm was spotted and which direction it's headed. We typically head downstairs and flip on the news, and they've usually got the weather on full-time when a warning is issued. We can see what they're tracking, and determine if there's an immediate need to head to the basement, or if it looks like something that'll miss us. The one last night was too close to call, so we went to the basement.

[RoslynHolcomb]

Okay, good to know the radios can be programmed just for your area. I'll pick up a radio today. I think we're due another round tonight.

[atlantagreg30127]

Can you adjust the volume of the alert sound on the Midland radio? I was thinking about buying one to update my old one but don't want that brand if you can't adjust the volume.

I have an older alert radio I got at Radio Shack many years ago that still works, and you can adjust the "siren" volume on it so it doesn't give you a heart attack when it goes off.

If you do get the Midland radio, you can go to THIS page to find the codes for the counties to program into it. It's recommended that you program your own county into it as well as the counties that are next to yours on the West side, since most of these storms come from West to East. They also have instructions on how to program the codes into the radio HERE, too.

Some Wal-mart stores also sell the Midland for the same $29 price, too. I sometimes get fed up with how commercialized channel 2 gets with their promos and radar-boasting. They recently did a news special about "Georgia's Tornadoes" and it was very apparent that the show was just a 30 minute advertisement to get folks to buy that radio from Kroger (no doubt channel 2 gets some $ out of it). So if I get one I'll probably get it through Wal-mart.

[BobKovacs]

I'm not sure if you can adjust the volume on the radio or not- I'll have to look at it tonight.

[samiwas1]

One interesting thing that we found out last night is that even if you are watching a recorded show on your tivo, the emergency system breaks through that....last night apparently every 3 minutes. I understand the need to get the emergency signal out, but it got a little annoying after a while.

[brownhornet]

I was in the club and didn't even know about it until this morning.

[btard]

Outdoor sirens are made to be heard by folks outdoors, who are away from tv & radio. You have to take proactive steps when you're indoors (weather radio, monitor tv, etc).

[RainyRainyDay]

I'm finding this thread extremely helpful. At our location we can hear the Cobb siren, but very faintly. It's not reliably audible over TV or music, or loud enough to wake us from sleep. So now we're checking into weather radios, and I'm discovering that only the higher end ones allow one to selectively program which alerts to raise. We don't want to be woken at 3am for an Amber alert! According to customer reviews at Amazon.com, there's a Reecom model that looks good.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

I'm finding this thread extremely helpful. At our location we can hear the Cobb siren, but very faintly. It's not reliably audible over TV or music, or loud enough to wake us from sleep. So now we're checking into weather radios, and I'm discovering that only the higher end ones allow one to selectively program which alerts to raise. We don't want to be woken at 3am for an Amber alert! According to customer reviews at Amazon.com, there's a Reecom model that looks good.

The $30 Midland radio at Kroger will only go off for Severe T-storm watches/warnings or Tornado watches/warnings, and can be programmed for your county. We've never had an Amber alert set it off (assuming you're talking about the child abduction alerts, not the amber light that comes on for watches).