The Oklahoma City council approved an update to the city’s outdoor warning siren system on Tuesday that should reduce over-warnings by up to 68 percent and eliminate false warnings.
Oklahoma City has 182 warning sirens that span three counties. Currently, any National Weather Service tornado warning in Oklahoma, Cleveland or Canadian County would activate all the sirens in that county.
Under the new plan, the city is divided into nine sectors. Sirens will only be activated in the sectors that are under threat of a tornado.
Oklahoma City Emergency Manager Frank Barnes said the new policy will stop warnings in part of the city that are not under threat, but it will not completely eliminate over-warning.
“In a few examples that we’ve looked at, we see that the over-warning provides advance notice to people who may be motoring or driving toward or into the affected area,” Barnes told the council.
The new policy also allows for activation of the outdoor sirens when public safety personnel in the field report seeing a tornado, when there is credible evidence for a tornado, or when recommended by Oklahoma City’s Office of Emergency Management.
Barnes said his office can monitor the movement of a storm and change which sectors are activated accordingly.
“It gives us better flexibility than we have under the current policy and current practice so we can better mix and match the sectors too the actual threat,” Barnes said.
Under the new plan, the city can take planned outdoor events into consideration and issue an earlier warning that would give people adequate time to evacuate the area or take cover.