Small Towns See Value In System

WARNING SYSTEM SUPPLEMENTS SIRENS

— The value of Benton County’s new emergency warning system has to be discussed in terms of the lives it might save for some of the smaller cities in Benton County.

The county activated its emergency telephone warning system earlier this week. All landline telephones in the county are in the system and will be called in the event of a tornado warning in the area of a person’s residence. People can sign up for other emergency notices and add cell phones, pagers and devices that receive e-mail to the system. Individuals can also choose to receive other emergency notices. People can also choose to have their phone removed from the system.

Gentry Mayor Wes Hogue, whose city has a system of three emergency warning sirens, said he looks forward to seeing how the telephone notification system can supplement the sirens.

“I believe in sirens because we’re very prudent about how we use our sirens,” Hogue said. “We don’t use them unless there’s a real emergency. But with modern construction methods you can’t always hear it if you’re inside a building, so it’s not always an extremely efficient system.”

Hogue said he’s supportive of the new system, based on what he knows about it. He said Gentry will see how it works and then decide how much use the city will make of it.

“I am all in favor of it,” he said. “It can reach you while you’re in your house. In addition to our sirens, I think it’s going to be a very good system. The proof will be in the pudding, of course, but I know I’m going to sign up for any notification I can possibly get because of the nature of my position as an elected official. But I’d encourage anyone to do the same. If it can give a person one minute, two minutes or five minutes notification it has the potential to save many lives.”

Centerton Mayor Bobbie Griffith said her community offers an example of the need for an emergency warning system.

“This is something the county cannot do without,” Griffith said. “There will be a little expense after the first year, but being shared on a per capita basis it shouldn’t be too much.

“There was a tornado here in 2006. I believe it was in March or April. A lot of homes were destroyed on the edge of town. We had looked at sirens. We tested some, and in a two and a half or three mile radius you could not hear them. Plus the cost was exorbitant.”

Griffith said she’s been talking with Centerton residents about the county’s system and found many people were unaware of the program or unfamiliar with the details of how it is meant to work.

“The people I’ve talked to out here, some don’t understand it yet so since I’ll be knocking on doors trying to get re-elected, I’ll by trying to explain it to them,” Griffith said.

Pea Ridge Mayor Jackie Crabtree said his city’s three warning sirens are useful for people outdoors, but are less helpful to people who are indoors when the sirens are sounded. He also said weather conditions can limit the effectiveness of the sirens. He said the telephone warning system will be a useful supplement once people understand it and begin to make use of it.

“It’s going to be something we’re going to have to get the word out to people on,” he said. “I think the actual voice calls have to be for emergencies, but I can see where we might make some use of the e-mails and other messages. I think if the cities don’t abuse it that’s going to be a key.”

Police Chief Ken Farmer of Bella Vista said his city needs a warning system and can’t rely on sirens. He said the city partnered with a community group to encourage residents to buy weather radios, but the county’s telephone notification system will offer another layer of protection.

“We had sirens, but we do not any more,” Farmer said. “It fell into a state of disrepair and we stopped using it. They were inadequate because of all the hills and valleys out here.”

Farmer said Bella Vista officials were researching telephone warning systems similar to the one the county adopted, but put that on hold when they learned Benton County was considering a county-wide project.

County Judge Dave Bisbee said the county’s system is primarily meant to assist rural areas, smaller cities and areas like Bella Vista where topography makes a siren system impractical. He said it’s available for people to use however they choose.

“We have a warning system for emergency situations,” he said. “I’m not trying to sell it to anybody. It’s their life and they can live it however they choose. We put the system in for them, not for the county.”

At A Glance

Benton County Warning Sirens

According to emergency services officials, seven of the 23 incorporated cities in Benton County have emergency warning sirens.

Rogers — 20 sirens

Bentonville — 16 sirens

Siloam Springs — eight sirens

Gravette — five sirens

Decatur — four sirens

Pea Ridge — three sirens

Gentry — three sirens

Source: Benton County Department of Emergency Management

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