Oak Lawn Emergency Siren Testing To Resume Wednesday After Misfire

OAK LAWN, IL — System-wide testing of the tornado sirens will take place at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, in the communities served by the Oak Lawn Regional Emergency Communication Center, which in addition to Oak Lawn, includes Evergreen Park, Alsip, Burbank, Bridgeview and Hodgkins, may hear more than one test Wednesday afternoon.

More than one test may be conducted Wednesday afternoon to ensure that the remote activation equipment is functioning properly. All sirens in the OLREC network are equipped with manual triggers that can be activated if needed. Current testing does not represent or indicate any danger to public safety.

Diana Tousignant, director of emergency services, told Patch that the malfunction was discovered June 4, when the siren system failed to sound on the first Tuesday of the month, the appointed time when emergency siren systems are tested throughout Illinois.

“A technician responded last week, and we tested again this morning with negative results,” Tousignant said in an email. “The technicians were back on site again this morning and switched out our back-room siren equipment and are still actively working on a resolution.”

While Tousignant did not have an estimated time when the tornado sirens would be repaired, she was advised that the sirens could be manually set off in the event of a severe storm or other emergency.

“Once we have a resolution, we will schedule additional testing,” she said.

Many residents were asking on social media if anyone heard the sirens after receiving notifications throughout the day that the Oak Lawn Regional Emergency Communications Center would be testing the regional emergency sirens. The testing on Wednesday will test some critical componens which have been serviced the past week.

The current siren system was purchased with a $120,000 grant in 2013, to replace Oak Lawn’s then 25-year-old system. The American Signal Corporation outdoor emergency warning system was designed to give area residents the earliest advance warning possible to help the village be better prepared for tornadoes and other emergencies.

Among the then-new system’s features were better sound coverage and voice capabilities to relay warning messages in four languages, including English, Spanish, Polish and Arabic. The system was designed to warn people outdoors “who weren’t near a radio” to take cover in a storm or other disaster.

During the new system’s installation in the summer of 2013, residents seem confused, if not scared, by the voices messages in various languages blaring through the neighborhood as well as the new siren tonal sounds during monthly civil defense testing. Months later, Oak Lawn residents ripped the new system claiming they couldn’t hear warnings when a freak tornadic storm rolled through the area in the middle of November. Others who heard the multi-language voice warnings to seek shelter complained the voices were too garbled to understand.

OLREC went back to the traditional rising and falling wail sound similar to the civil defense sirens associated with the Cold War, that most residents grew up hearing during duck-and-cover drills at school, later changed to tornado drills to make it less scary to kids. The emergency alert for severe weather was extended and the voices were eliminated from the monthly testing.

Unlike the old, outdated siren systems of the mid-century, the current system allows silent testing to be conducted on a daily basis to ensure it is working, village officials said. The tornado sirens are installed at the following locations:

• 5500 W. 111th Street and Frontage Road
• 102nd Street and Major Avenue
• 103rd Street and Kostner Avenue (Behind Fire House)
• 93rd Place and South Keeler Avenue
• 6451 West 93rd Place (Behind Fire House)
• 91st Street and 52nd Avenue (Covington School)

Meanwhile, residents are advised to keep checking the Village of Oak Lawn Facebook page for notification of subsequent tests in the near future.