Huber Heights set to install 2 tornado sirens

Residents express safety concerns after twister struck nearby.

Huber Heights residents have complained that the system the city uses for severe weather warnings is not keeping them safe, and the city now is working to build a new system.

City residents can sign up for alerts sent to their phones, but some of them told this news organization they often don’t have phones with them.

Dale Brown regularly walks his dogs near the Kroger Aquatic Center, but he does not always carry his phone with him.

“What phone? Who needs it?” Brown asked.

That means he won’t receive critical weather alerts from the WHIO weather app, and he also won’tget information from Huber Heights’ Code Red Alert System. The city uses it to notify residents of severe weather via phone call, text or email.

Huber Heights does not have tornado sirens, but the city will install two sirens in the next month. One will be placed at the aquatic center and the other at Thomas Cloud Park.

The safety concerns were magnified when a tornado struck nearby New Carlisle in May.

Many residents then said they were never warned by the Code Red system.

Those alerts only go out to people in what the National Weather Service identifies as the potential path of the storm and only to those who sign up for the alerts.

That is what sparked the city’s recent discussions regarding the installation of sirens.

Huber Heights would need seven sirens to cover the whole city. Fire Chief Mark Ashworth — who said Code Red alerts work as intended — said then that sirens were too expensive for total coverage of the city.

For now, a grant from Montgomery County will help pay the $32,000 bill for installing two sirens.

Brown said it is a start. “I think it’s definitely going to be needed because the population around here is growing and growing and growing,” Brown said.