BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP -- The recent spate of deadly tornadoes across the South and Midwest has sounded a local alarm.
In response to worried callers, Union Township officials in Butler County are considering the purchase of tornado sirens to warn residents to take shelter before a funnel cloud hits the ground. Early cost estimates, though, are as high as $350,000, at a time when federal grants for the devices have dried up.
Union Township's interest joins Fairfield Township's -- which tests its new sirens at noon Wednesdays -- and Butler County's, in its desire to centralize a countywide warning system.
"There is a heightened awareness of tornadoes due to the outbreak in the South and Midwest," said Dale Stewart, acting director of the Butler County Emergency Management Agency.
"We've had a lot of calls in the office here from people asking what to do."
Four cities in Butler County already operate tornado warning sirens: Oxford, Hamilton, Fairfield and Monroe, Mr. Stewart said. He is studying a method to set off all sirens in the county from one location following a tornado warning from the National Weather Service.
Acquiring the instruments is no easy task.
Grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that covered the tornado sirens are no longer available, Mr. Stewart said.
Fairfield Township paid for its four sirens, which cost $63,000, from its general fund, he said.
Scott Bressler, project manager for Union Township, told township trustees he would look into costs and other details and report back at their next meeting June 9.
Mr. Bressler wants to use grants instead of taxpayer money. To blanket the area, Union Township would need 13 sirens, which could cost between $250,000 and $350,000, he said.
The sirens would be used to send warnings for residents to take cover. They could also transmit other tones in a 4-mile radius during a chemical spill or other disasters.
Despite the large price tags, the extra 10 minutes of preparation sirens provide could save lives.
Ron Barnhart and his neighbors in the Princeton Road Mobile Home Park on Ohio 747 in Union Township feel vulnerable.
The closest protection is two bridges and a cavern-like creek bed behind the mobile homes, said Mr. Barnhart, whose cousin's trailer was demolished by a tornado at the park about five years ago.
A siren could buy enough time to move to a shelter, he said.
"At least if the warning was there, it would be a possibility."
