Emergencies require planning

By Dave Colmans

April 16, 2008 11:40 am

— For those of us who were around the ‘50s and ‘60s, we often call them air raid sirens.
The younger generation knows them as tornado warning or severe weather warning sirens.
Actually, both perspectives are wrong.
Problem is, the warning sirens are not available in all of Georgia’s cities and towns.
This became painfully clear in Atlanta when the March tornado blew through downtown. It’s also an issue in Dalton and Whitfield County since these all hazards warning sirens are not used.
According to Jeffrey Putnam, emergency management director for Whitfield County, Whitfield County utilizes the so-called Reverse 911 system as it affects the specific emergency. Every listed phone number in the county near the emergency will be called, playing a message that notifies whoever answers of the emergency situation and what to do.
Putnam said, “At the same time the local radio stations and our cable TV station are alerted to initiate the Emergency Broadcast System. Special tones alert viewers and listeners that an important message is about to be heard or seen on ‘crawler’ at the bottom of the TV screen.”
“We emphasize the use of National Weather Service weather alert radios,” Putnam added.
Alert tones are activated for Whitfield County with the appropriate message broadcast.
Highway crashes with tractor-trailer or other trucks, train derailments, industrial plant fires or explosions or plane crashes all pose the potential for non-weather emergencies.
These additional hazards are another reason why family disaster plans are important just as they are for school children.
While the all hazards sirens can be useful, Putnam points out that they have a limited area, typically a radius of one mile. These sirens are not intended for those indoors. They are an outdoor warning system. They are also limited by the topography of the area which presents problems for Whitfield County.
“It’s very important that our citizens are well informed as quickly as possible with an emergency situation occurs. We have a limited amount of time to get the correct information to the most number of people,” he said.
When an emergency situation arises, quickly taking the correct action can save both time and lives.

David Colmans is executive director of the Georgia Insurance Information Service, a not-for-profit, non-lobbying trade association of property and casualty insurers doing business in Georgia. Contact him at dcolmans@giis.org