Problems With Longview’s Emergency Sirens

LONGVIEW – Longview conducted the monthly test of the emergency siren network on Wednesday. During the test, only eight of the twenty sirens were confirmed to work properly. The electronic equipment that relays the signal to the sirens was initially damaged during the storm on Sunday, May 28. While the electronic equipment continued to work during last week’s test and all sirens sounded on May 31, the damaged electronic equipment did not properly work on Wednesday’s test. The affected electronic equipment will be replaced as soon as it is available and tests will follow.

According to Fire Chief J.P. Steelman, “We are diligently working to get the siren system repaired. During this time, we encourage everyone to sign up for CodeRed and not rely on the sirens as the only source of warning notification. Also, the public should be aware that we may need to do intermittent siren tests as we conduct repairs over the coming weeks.”

On May 31st, the sirens were tested because some said they did not hear them on May 28th when they were activated after the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for southeastern Gregg County. During the May 31st test, all twenty of the city’s strategically located sirens sounded. But three of the twenty sirens did not rotate fully. In the monthly test on March 1, there were no malfunctions noted. These three sirens will be scheduled for maintenance as soon as possible. It is possible that these three were damaged in May 28th storm preventing them from full rotation. Those sirens are located at 1600 Blueridge Parkway, 610 East Loop 281, and 1602 W. Cotton Street.