Never rely on an outdoor warning siren as your first way of getting a tornado warning. Every Alabama home and business must have a NOAA Weather Radio for the warning process to work. ABC 33/40 is proud to partner with Handy TV and Publix to provide NOAA Weather Radios with SAME technology (which means you can select the counties for which the alarm sound) at the greatly reduced price of only $29.95 each. These radios are available at all Publix and Handy TV locations across North-Central Alabama, including the Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Anniston, and Gadsden areas.
Another reminder as we look at a major severe weather threat tomorrow (Thursday), ABC 33/40 continues to offer E-Warn, our free service that delivers severe weather watches and warnings to you via wireless devices like cell phones and pagers, and also by e-mail. We have over 50,000 E-Warn subscribers, and we invite you to join us if you are not subscribed now. Just sign up on the ABC 33/40 web site, and you can select the counties you are interested in. We even offer a number of counties in the eastern part of Mississippi that are in the ABC 33/40 viewing area. While there might be a charge to you from your wireless vendor concerning text messages, E-Warn itself is absolutely free. That is a great way of getting tornado warnings while you are on the go; I am subscribed to all 67 counties on my phone (I would NOT recommend that for other people, however!), and the system works wonderfully.
Back to the siren issue, I probably need to clarify a point. This month I have been writing “FORGET THE SIRENS†often. That doesn’t mean to ignore them if you hear them, but simply that sirens are not intended to reach people in a home or business; they are for people outdoors. The “siren mentalityâ€, assuming you should hear a siren in your home before a tornado, can kill many people. That is why things like NOAA Weather Radio and E-Warn are so important!
