As local emergency management agencies in Wisconsin search for ways to improve or retain resources that keep residents safe, federal spending cuts to agencies like FEMA are making it difficult for them to plan for the future.
In Rock County, for example, leaders are hoping to upgrade their tornado warning sirens to improve response times and better target precise locations where disasters are happening.
The sirens currently sound county-wide whenever there is a tornado warning issued anywhere in the area. Ken Wernet, who directs Rock County Emergency Management, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that he worries county-wide sirens could create “siren fatigue” among residents who may be hearing the warnings in an area with clear skies.
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His call to update his county’s warning systems was driven in part by the news earlier this month of a flash flood that devastated the region in Kerr County, Texas and claimed the lives of more than 100 people. The county had plans to modernize its flood warning systems but suffered setbacks due to funding challenges, according to PBS.
Wernet said experiences like what happened in Texas, as well as the increase in extreme weather locally, really “drove home” the importance of quality warning systems.
“All of my peers are really pushing to make sure that we can alert the public, have a plan and make sure that folks are prepared,” Wernet said. “I would ask that if listeners out there don’t live right underneath an outdoor warning siren, that they have a weather radio and have a plan where they can go to have that safe place, whether it’s a tornado, flood or another severe incident.”
Wernet said county leadership is mostly on board for upgrading their system that would be able to be more geographically tailored to weather threats. But funding for the project is a question mark due to federal cuts to local government grants.
“The big barrier really is the price tag,” he said, noting it would cost the county roughly $500,000 initially to set up the system, plus operating costs.
Wernet said his office receives roughly 17 percent of its budget from FEMA’s Emergency Management Performance Grant.
In Outagamie County, Emergency Management Director Paula Van De Leygraaf told “Wisconsin Today” that potential federal cuts to their funding mean they’re considering ending a program that donates nearly 1,000 weather radios to residents every year.
“Having those extra tools like a weather radio are really important, because those can wake you up while you’re sleeping — they’re in your home, they’re very loud and they give you exact wording on what actionable tasks people should take,” she said. “If I was told that my numbers needed to come down, that would be one program I would probably have to cut, because it’s a fairly decent amount of money in my budget.”
Wernet said his county currently receives its National Weather Service warnings through a fax machine. Operators would then read the fax and manually issue the siren when needed. Under their proposed upgrades, regional sirens would instead be linked automatically to NWS updates via cell data, saving potential minutes on warning time.
Currently, Rock County’s sirens sound whenever NWS issues tornado warnings or for particularly severe thunderstorms with roughly baseball-sized hail. Other counties like Outagamie only sound for tornadoes.
Outagamie already has a localized siren system similar to what Rock County is seeking. Van De Leygraaf said having sirens working essentially automatically with NWS warnings can save lives by bringing down response times and making people aware of emergencies more quickly.
In addition to local warning systems and weather radios, Van De Leygraaf said one surprisingly simple thing people could do to increase their emergency preparedness is just checking the weather every day when they wake up.
“It takes less than a minute,” she said. “Log into your local weather app, check the forecast, and if they are calling for a chance of anything severe, maybe adjust your plans or just be more vigilant throughout the day.”
