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 Towns join together on tornado early warning system web posted November 19, 2008 COUNTY – With recent years of severe weather and several tornados hitting the county, a tornado warning system has been put in place for the towns of Edgefield, Johnston, and Trenton. “We’re calling this phase one,” Edgefield County EMA Director Mike Casey said Tuesday. Phase two is hoped to implement the warning system to other heavily populated areas of the county in the future. “When a warning is issued the (fire) siren in all three towns will sound off with a continuous 2-minute blast,” Mr. Casey said. The idea of a tornado warning system was initiated several moths ago by Edgefield Mayor Ken Durham. After having a tornado bouncing across the town before hammering nearby Johnston in the middle of the night, Mayor Durham brought the issue up at a town council meeting. The town council agreed to look into implementing the plan and EMA Director Mike Casey was contacted for a feasibility study. From there EMA Director Casey began investigating how to implement the system for the town. With a siren already in place, accompanied by a “tone” system, the cost of adding a warning was extremely cost effective. Basically it would only require the installation of a computer card into the controller unit to respond to a warning that would be issued (or “toned out”) by the 911 Dispatch, although there would be an additional cost to integrate the new “tone” into the 911 system. The cost to the Town of Edgefield would be a little over $1,000 for the hardware at the fire station and an additional cost of around $2,000 to install the required equipment at the 911-dispatch center. Mayor Durham and the town pushed forward and the process began. The Town of Johnston, who has borne the most destruction in the recent tornadoes, became interested in signing on to the program. Johnston Mayor Willie Campbell and the town council gave their approval to move forward implementing the same system in the following months and offered to split the cost of the upgrades to the 911 Dispatch system. A win –win for both towns. The Town of Trenton showed an interest and later signed on, thus completing the early warning system for all three towns. Trenton Mayor Helen Summer said the cost to Trenton was a bit higher due to having to install additional hardware that Edgefield and Johnston fire departments already had in place, but the cost was low enough to continue. “We looked at installing a new siren,” Mayor Summer said, but the near $15,000 cost was out of reach. Mayor Summer said Trenton - whose fiscal year begins in January - had just completed its budget and the inclusion of the warning system did not increase the expenditures. “We have a balanced budget and no tax increase,” she said. EMA Director Mike Casey said his department had to create the protocol for when dispatchers would tone out the alert. “If there is a tornado warning, not a watch, but a warning specifically for Edgefield County where there is either a tornado in the county or one moving toward Edgefield County the warning will be toned out,” and the siren will sound to advise residents to take cover. The protocol will rely mainly on a call from the weather service in Columbia, an indication of rotation on Doppler radar, or a sighting by law enforcement or a “trained weather spotter” in order to initiate issuing the warning. Initial testing of the system is already underway and testing that will include the actual sounding of the sirens will be held, “very shortly”, Mr. Casey said. Phase two of the early warning system, if implemented, would possibly seek to install sirens in three more areas. The most likely areas would be around the Merriwether main fire station on Martintown Road, somewhere near Murphy Village, and another possible location in the Bettis Academy area due to the population densities of each community. To install the siren, control box, and other infrastructure needed would cost an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 for each location at current prices. Matching funds grants could be available to offset at least half of the overall cost if awarded. Completing phase two would have early warning systems installed in five of the seven fire districts; Edgefield, Johnston, Trenton, County Line, and Merriwether. Due to the sparse population densities in the Westside and Northside areas, any additional systems would have to be strategically placed to warrant the cost. ©
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