Tuesday’s tornado sirens: Time for Monroe County residents to test their severe weather plan—and resist storm-watching urges
All 37 of Monroe County’s tornado sirens are supposed to go off tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. (Tuesday, March 11) as a part of a statewide test that’s been set up by Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security.
That’s on top of the regular first-Friday monthly siren test which takes place at noon.
In a telephone interview, Monroe County emergency management director Jamie Neibel told The B Square that Tuesday morning’s exercise is not just for the county government, to confirm that its equipment is working. It’s a chance for residents to review and refine their severe weather survival plan.
Neibel said Tuesday’s drill is a chance for native midwesterners to practice fighting their storm-watching instincts, which might make them rush to a window or parking garage rooftop, to see what's coming.
The information in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) database, which covers 1950 to 2024, shows that tornadoes are not a hypothetical construct in Monroe County, Indiana. In the last 25 years, Monroe County has seen seven tornadoes, including one in 2019 and two in 2023. One of the tornadoes in 2023—the one that crossed from southwest to northeast across the Spencer corner of the county—killed two people.
The first part of a plan for residents, Neibel said, is to have more than one way to receive an alert—sirens, text messages, email messages, or a weather radio. Around 30,000 or 40,000 residents have already signed up for Monroe County’s Everbridge alert system, she said. Everbridge allows people to choose text message, email, or phone call, as ways to be alerted.
Dedicated preprogrammed radios are available free from Monroe County emergency management, located at 5850 Foster-Curry Drive.
Once you’re alerted, it’s important to know where you will seek shelter, which will make it easier to resist a storm spectator’s urge to head to the top of a parking garage, Neibel said. If you’re in a single-family house, go to the basement or a small, windowless room on the lowest floor. Apartment dwellers should head to the lowest interior room with the most number of outside walls.
Mobile home residents should leave their trailer and find a building—a 24/7 supermarket or a hotel with a lobby, that might allow them to seek shelter, Neibel suggested. She stressed that it’s useful to talk to people at those kinds of buildings to make arrangements before a tornado hits.
Tuesday’s drill is a good time to check that there are some reusable icepacks actually prepared in the freezer—not sitting out from that time they were removed to make room for more ice cream, Neibel confirmed.
Monroe County emergency management is distributing foam coolers with reusable ice packs, to help residents preserve medications during potential power outages.
Neibel told The B Square that Tuesday’s drill is a good time to get to know your neighbors, so that you can check on them, and they can check on you, when a tornado actually hits.
Tuesday’s statewide drill is also a chance to confirm that the county government’s sirens are working. County employees will be among those watching on Tuesday to verify that the 37 emergency systems are rotating as they should.
Solid waste employees, highway department personnel, and firefighters in Ellettsville and the Monroe Fire Protection District will check the sirens near their facilities. Neibel told The B Square that some amateur radio operators have volunteered to monitor other locations.
Monroe County is on a path to replace all 37 of its sirens—eight have already been replaced, Neibel said. That includes one near the American Legion Post 18 off 3rd Street. The American Legion siren was mounted on a wooden pole that was destroyed by woodpeckers.
