A tornado that killed two people in Lawrence County last week struck too quickly for outdoor tornado sirens to provide a warning, and Cullman County Emergency Management Agency Director Phyllis Little advises local residents to not rely on the sirens during severe weather.

Little said Cullman County has 43 outdoor sirens, with 26 of them belonging to municipalities that are responsible for their upkeep and the remaining 17 under the responsibility of the Cullman County Commission. When the National Weather Service puts out a tornado warning, that alert is automatically sent to the sirens for them to begin signaling to residents of the area under the warning.

The NWS sends out a tornado warning when they detect rotation that could be a tornado, but sometimes that rotation can happen too fast and a tornado could be on the ground before a warning can be issued, she said. 

That was the case last week in Lawrence County, and in a similar storm on Battleground Mountain that injured three people last June, Little said. 

“It can happen at any time because of the nature of storms that spin up so fast,” she said.

Little said people also shouldn’t rely on the outdoor sirens when they are in their homes because that isn’t the intended purpose for them. 

The sirens are meant to be an outdoor warning system for people who are outside at the time of the storm, and are not intended to warn people who are indoors or are asleep at night, she said. 

“They’re outdoor warning sirens, not ‘wake me up in the middle of the night sirens,’” she said. 

The sirens are also battery powered, so in the event of a long tornado outbreak such as in April of 2011, the sirens could run out of power after high usage and be unable to recharge before another tornado warning is issued, she said.

“They can fail at any point,” she said.

Sirens are not the best way to receive tornado warnings, but there are a few more reliable methods for residents to stay safe in a storm, Little said. 

“The policy of this office is to encourage people to get a NOAA weather radio,” she said. 

She said the weather radios have battery backups and receive their alerts directly from the National Weather Service, so they are the fastest and most reliable way of getting tornado warnings or any other kind of weather alert. 

Little said people likely have another way to receive weather warnings that is already in their pockets — their phones.

With the availability of weather apps higher than ever, people should download one or two of those apps and figure out which ones they like the best to provide an extra alert in case they are away from home or can’t hear their radios. 

“You can get alerts on your phone just as fast as you can with a NOAA weather radio or with sirens,” she said.

There are 43 outdoor weather sirens in Cullman County.

Municipalities are responsible for maintaining 26.

The Cullman County Commission responsible for maintaining 17.