SPRINGDALE, Ark. — In the aftermath of Wednesday morning's tornado, residents of Springdale are cleaning up. There are no tornado sirens in the city of Springdale and some residents have spoken out on social media about receiving an alert on their phones after the tornado passed.
Since the 1980s, Springdale has moved away from a manual siren alert system. Previously, it was controlled by an on-duty firefighter according to a press release sent out by Springdale Fire Chief, Blake Holte.
Now, the city utilizes a digital alert system. Residents are encouraged to sign up for the alerts by clicking here. Registration is done in a few minutes and allows notifications to be sent to cell phones, work phones, landlines and email.
The issue Wednesday was timing.
"Our alert system is triggered by the warnings put out by the National Weather Service," said Springdale Mayor, Doug Sprouse. "This tornado was already on the ground before the National Weather Service was able to detect it," continued Sprouse.
Some residents took to social media to voice their concerns about the alert and questioned why sirens are not in use.
"This isn't going to work because I don't think this is adequate at all," said Springdale resident Casey Evans. Evans' home backs up to George Elementary School and was damaged in the storm. Evans went on to say that his time as a child in Kansas was a reason for reacting to keep his family safe.
Other residents feel the digital alerts are a more reliable way to reach a large population at once.
"We live in a more digital age. More people are attuned to that digital sound, rather than something that's happening outside of their house," said Kevin Seymour, a Springdale resident.
Mayor Sprouse noted that due to the quick development of the EF-3 tornado, neither alert system would have given advance warning citing the time at which the National Weather Service made the warning.
"If we had a siren system it would have been triggered the same way our mobile alert system is triggered, so there would have been no difference," said Sprouse. Both ways rely on the warning being made by the National Weather Service before the alert can be made.
If you are a resident, signing up for the Springdale Alert system, having an NOAA weather radio, or checking in with radio or television weather are critical in helping keep people safe. Even if you aren't a resident and just passing through, you don't need to sign up for the Springdale Alert due to the location feature on cell phones.
"National Weather Service alerts are put out in a polygon shape. They're able to pretty accurately predict storm paths," said Springdale Fire Chief Blake Holte. "If your device is in that area and your wireless emergency alert is on your phone, it will alert you," continued Chief Holte.
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