Warning to anyone thinking about buying a home in Gibbon, Nebraska

[Sandhills homesteader]

Originally Posted by rodentraiser

I used to live in Bremerton on the main drag through town. Starting at 10pm, the guys with the leaf blowers would start. At midnight, you'd get the street sweepers. At 2am, the local garbage trucks would come through. At 4 the deliveries started. At 6, the morning commute through town to the ferries began. If you wanted to sleep at night, your best bet would be 4 sleeping tablets at 9 before all the noise started. Now I live where you can hear a branch drop in the woods a mile away - and I'm partially deaf!

Yes those are loud noises. But nothing like those poor folks with 130db siren sitting right outside their windows. And theres THREE of them in a town that's only a short mile wide.

[Sandhills homesteader]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Noon and 6pm is quite common but never heard 7am and 1pm (but it's possible). When farming with horses, it was handy.

My 26 yo aunt was dying of rheumatic fever, during WWII, and her home was at the base of a CD tower. She would scream in pain at each whistle. (Not in Gibbon, but nearby)

My Thailand location has disco until 3am, dogfight at 4am, call to prayer at 5am, then scooter rush hour starts at 6am. Rural Nebraska seems a bit more mellow most of the time.

Exactly. There's sick people who are being affected by these sirens. And they serve no functional purpose. Even the city said they serve no purpose but "it's what we've always done.Its our identity." I use to live next to a bar that had music till 3am. Was right next door. Those aren't 130db. Those sirens are 130db and sitting outside people's homes. Some are elderly and disabled and are most likely too afraid to say anything for fear of retaliation. I know someone who has to wear hearing protection inside their home, and who had to put soundproofing material in their windows, and who had to put a business zoom conference on hold while everyone waited for the siren to stop blaring. The people could hear it over the computer. They are damaging. And Gibbon has THREE of them in a town barely a mile wide.

My whole point is to folks wanting to buy a home and are considering buying to understand what they're getting themselves into before buying. Nebraska is a state that does not require nuisance disclosures when buying property so unless a home buyer is viewing a home when the sirens go off, they'll think they're closing on a quiet rual town home. People need to know before they spend 100's of thousands on a home where they will never get to sleep in on a day off, or reat when they are sick, or put a child down for a nap at 11am etc etc.

[Sandhills homesteader]

Originally Posted by heavymind

Thanks for the warning.

Fewer than 2,000 population? Sounds like paradise to me, sirens or no sirens. Added to my list of potential relocation areas.

Good luck to you

[Sandhills homesteader]

Originally Posted by heavymind

Thanks for the warning.

Fewer than 2,000 population? Sounds like paradise to me, sirens or no sirens. Added to my list of potential relocation areas.

Well if you're looking for rural towns in Nebraska with less than 2000 people, there's 100's of towns in Nebraska to choose from that DONT blare sirens 4 times a day and at night. Nebraska really IS paradise. But Gibbon is far from. Bc when you're not dealing with the sirens...you've got a meat packing stench bc the meat packing plant is actually IN town. But you can close windows to avoid that. Can't keep out a 130db siren

[Sandhills homesteader]

Originally Posted by Charlie&Rose

Unless you are deaf, sounds (no pun intended) like a real nightmare.

It really is. And the thing is, you don't know until you've closed on your home, bc Nebraska doesn't require "nuisance disclosures" like most states. So unless you are there exactly when the sirens go off, you're screwed. It's really just awful.

[Seguinite]

Originally Posted by Sandhills homesteader

It really is. And the thing is, you don't know until you've closed on your home, bc Nebraska doesn't require "nuisance disclosures" like most states. So unless you are there exactly when the sirens go off, you're screwed. It's really just awful.

Apologies to the OP for my earlier disbelief. I can see maybe one at noon time... but no question about it, four times seems excessive.

[stephenMM]

We have one of those sirens here in Little Rock, Ar. It goes off every single day at noon. Fortunately it doesn't stay on too long, but it's there, like it or not. During the last tornado watch it must have gone off 10 separate times in one day, and those times it stayed on for much longer. But what are you going to do anyway? Cower in the building's hallways? Give me a good old fashioned Gulf Coast hurricane any day. You get to watch it form and slowly head your way for maybe a week before you have to skedaddle. This one minute panic drill is for the birds.

[Lodestar]

Grew up in a little town on the prairie in So. MN. We had the noon, six and nine pm whistles. Since we were free-range children the signal got us home when we were supposed to be. If it bothered anyone I don't remember people complaining.

Perhaps there were elders or people who were ill for whom they were a burden.

We also had trains running through the south end of main street and you could hear them coming and going through the day and night. As a kid I looked forward to the sound. Maybe it reminded me that there was "somebody out there someplace." Heh.

And when it came to the occasional tornado, the siren was our friend. It's hard for me to understand why anyone would prefer a hurricane to a tornado. It usually isn't so sudden or a surprise. There are usually early weather markers that signal it's tornado weather once again for people who have lived there. You can feel it in the air and see by the color of the sky. And while they can appear with little warning a tornado has to be very close in order to do significant damage. They hop and skip and disappear as fast as they came. Hurricanes, however, cover a much wider area of land and put more people in jeopardy.

We didn't have to leave. The older houses in town and farm places still had storm cellars when I was growing up. Just like Dorothy.

[jmgg]

Originally Posted by Seguinite

Apologies to the OP for my earlier disbelief. I can see maybe one at noon time... but no question about it, four times seems excessive.

The early morning whistle sounds like someone there is very sadistic. Shades of "My Cousin Vinny." I would hate that myself.

The town where I went to school had a noon whistle and a 6:00 pm whistle. I think these were wonderful in letting the kids of the town know when it was time to go home. It's not as necessary now as most kids nowadays are inside playing video games. If the weather was even the least bit decent, we were outside. Usually we wanted to be, but sometimes the adults told us to get outside and come back for dinner or supper WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS. They usually only had a general idea where we were in town because we were safe back then.