[May 17, 2013] This is not a test Tweet May 17, 2013 (Cleburne Times-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The outdoor sirens sounded, the emergency operations center in the basement of Cleburne City Hall was manned and automated CodeRED telephone warnings went out. Although several residents at Thursday's town hall meeting told the mayor they did not hear sirens, the official in charge of Cleburne's emergency management systems said they worked as planned in response to the .6-mile wide tornado that went through Cleburne on Wednesday night. "We have 12 outdoor sirens," said Randy Jenkins, Cleburne assistant fire chief and emergency management coordinator. "We activate all 12 for any type of weather. Far as I know they all operated fine." Sirens are located on 45-foot steel poles. They run on A/C power with a battery backup. Sirens are activated and monitored from a computerized system in the city's 911 communication center or the emergency operation center. Still, Christy Hailey said on the Times-Review Facebook page, "I had to strain to hear them over on North Wilhite. It has always been very hard to hear them, due in part to the train yard that is back there. We did hear them, but had to walk outside to hear them. If we would have been sleeping, we would not have heard them at all. Which is very, very scary." Bradley Kimberlin said in a T-R Facebook post that she did not hear sirens. "But I live out by Liberty Chapel," she said. Jenkins estimated that the sirens cover about 90 percent of Cleburne. There are no sirens in Cleburne's newly annexed areas of the city and no money in the coming year's budget for new sirens. They cost about $20,000 per siren, Jenkins said. Sirens may be inaudible indoors with air conditioners running, loud music or televisions playing or high winds blowing. Pepsie Baker Frish said on the T-R Facebook that she heard sirens, "but only when I opened the front door, which is not a good thing to do during a storm like that. Either we need more of them or they need to make them louder!" That's why Jenkins encourages residents to sign up for free automated CodeRED telephone alerts. CodeRED telephones all Cleburne residents, or targeted areas of the city in case of an emergency that requires immediate action, according to the city's website, and works for land lines as well as cellphones. CodeRED will automatically call when the National Weather Service issues tornadoes, flash floods and severe weather warnings for your address. It only calls when warnings are issued and only if a resident's address is in the path of the storm, according to the city website. "You can put in more than one [phone] per address," Jenkins said. "It is 100 percent automated. That's what I love about it. "If you don't answer it'll leave a message," Jenkins said, adding that registration is easy. "It may take every bit of two minutes." Jamie Moore, the county's emergency management coordinator, was touring damaged sites with one of the state's top emergency officials on Friday. "The comments I got were he's very pleased that our response was efficient," Moore said. "All of the agencies in this county came together. There were no jurisdictional boundaries -- none whatsoever. It was addressed as one major incident." Moore said an after-incident review held after the recent West explosion underscored the need to have agency representatives face to face at the county's emergency center when disaster strikes. "There were lessons learned" from West, which faced what Moore called significant challenges in coordinating 15 agencies, he said. "We discussed that. That's exactly what we implemented. The system worked with very few hiccups." As for the sirens, he reiterated Jenkins' comments. "They're an outdoor warning system," Moore said. "Sirens have a value but there needs to be redundant layers of notification." Moore said he's a "huge fan of CodeRED." But he also encourages residents to use NOAA weather radar, the Red Cross tornado app and other cellphone apps. In addition to being prepared, Moore said Johnson County was lucky. "What was so interesting was, every supercell had a tornado warning issued with it with the exception of the storm in Hood County," he said. "It was a huge indicator for us. It gave us an edge. We took action based on that. We took action." ___ (c)2013 the Cleburne Times-Review (Cleburne, Texas) Visit the Cleburne Times-Review (Cleburne, Texas) at www.cleburnetimesreview.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]