Darke County EMA
Changes in Outdoor Warning Sirens 

The project of activating outdoor warning sirens from the Darke County Emergency Communications Center located at the Sheriff’s Office is now complete. Some residents in county Villages will notice a change in testing of these sirens. 

Beginning June 3, 2013 sirens located in Ansonia, Arcanum, Ithaca, Bradford, Burkettsville, Gettysburg, New Madison, Wayne Lakes, North Star, Rossburg, Union City, Versailles, and Eldora Speedway will be tested the first Monday of every month at noon. 

If inclement weather is occurring and/or is forecast to occur that day, the monthly test will be postponed until the following month. This decision will be made at the discretion of the Darke County Sheriff’s Office Administration. The City of Greenville will continue to activate their own sirens however, a back-up activation point has been added to the Darke County Emergency Communications Center.   

The weather events that trigger a siren activation remain the same. Activation of a warning siren is based on a tornado warning from the National Weather Service or a verified spotting by a training official. 

Tornado and wind related events killed nearly 25 Ohioans in the past five years despite advances in how people are alerted of strong storms. Experts agree there isn’t one perfect plan for alerting those in the storm’s path, but say the key is having several systems in place to ensure there are multiple ways a resident can be notified. 

What it comes to emergency preparedness, local communities use a variety of resources to help get the word out to their citizens about pending disasters. Authorities encourage citizens to do all they can to make sure that are in a positions to get alerts about potential threats.  

If a warning has been issued or a tornado has been spotted in the county, all sirens are sounded in every city and village. This is because all jurisdictions have adopted the same procedure. The guesswork has been eliminated. The alarm indicates the same thing, regardless of where you are in the county.