OPINION
Emergency warning system

While we don’t exactly live in tornado alley, if a disaster, natural or otherwise, was imminent or had struck in our neighborhood it would be nice to know as quickly as possible and be advised on the best course of action. After the tornado in Holly the question came up about the old air raid sirens that came online during the era of bomb shelters and the cold war. It took a little research because we had to find someone with “institutional knowledge”, but an email to Jim Reid, Director of The Office of Emergency Management (OEM), led to Fountain resident Jim Mesite, Manager of the OEM, who was on board before OEM was part of the Sheriff’s Office.

It seems that in the 1990 to ’91 time frame the director of OEM went to the Colorado Springs City Council and County Commissioners with the report that the city and county had outgrown the current system and it would cost about $1.3 million to expand it back to full coverage. Given 15 years of growth and inflation the cost would be several times that today. The decision was made to dismantle the system and allow the smaller municipalities, which included the towns of Fountain, Manitou Springs, Palmer Lake, and Calhan, to keep their systems and even helped the town of Ramah acquire and install a single siren. As far a we know those towns still have functional emergency warning sirens. Fort Carson and Peterson Air Force Base both still have the emergency warning sirens that generate calls to the Sheriff’s Office when they are tested

In 1950 people had much less access to media and instant information than 1990 and especially compared to 2007 where car radios, walkmans and cell phones keep you current in the information age. While KRDO is the primary receiver of signals and is responsible to get the warning to other outlets, we also now have “Early Warning System” that uses the 9-1-1 dispatch system. With this, every phone in the Fountain Valley could be notified in about 10 minutes with specific instructions. Don’t call it “Reverse 911”, that is trademarked and apparently we use the competitor.

Under the heading “Everything old is new again”, it was reported that Arlington County, Virginia recently began a pilot program with a new outdoor system that combines a horn blast with a broadcast message giving specific instructions. Who knows how the high-tech and no-tech will come together to improve on what we are using today.
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