Story Highlights

  • Tornado warning issued, but sirens silent: Outdoor warning sirens in Shelby and Adair counties failed to activate Sunday night during a National Weather Service tornado warning.
  • Technical problems caused failures: Shelby County officials said a digital signal error prevented sirens from activating, while Adair County reported a hardware failure at a tower site supporting its warning system.
  • Officials urge multiple alert methods: Emergency management leaders say residents should rely on several ways to receive severe weather alerts, including NOAA weather radios and text notifications, since outdoor sirens are not designed to be heard indoors.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Shelby and Adair counties on Sunday night as severe weather moved across the area.

But the sirens were silent.

In Shelby County, a radio signal from dispatch triggers the warning sirens. County officials said Monday that the signal didn't transmit correctly and the sirens never activated.

"I've got a siren across the road from my house, and there was no notification. It was a gut punch for me," said Chris Spaulding, emergency management director for Shelby County. "... It was sending a digital signal versus an analog signal to all of our sirens. And, basically, in a nutshell, it didn't know what to do."

Shelby County Emergency Management had crews working to fix the issue and re-test the sirens so this doesn't happen again.

A Wind Advisory was in effect from 8 p.m. Sunday to 8 a.m. Monday with winds ranging from 25-35 mph and gusts up to 55 mph. No tornadoes were confirmed from the storm, but thousands were left without power across the area.

In Adair County, sirens were silent due to a hardware failure at the tower site that supports the county's outdoor warning system.

"In this day and age of electronics and digital age and everything, failures happen," Spaulding said Monday. "And, unfortunately, it just happened that night."

Emergency teams in both counties are using the failures Sunday night to remind people to have multiple ways to get weather alerts, like an NOAA weather radio and enrolling in local text alerts. In fact, Spaulding said outdoor warning sirens were never designed to be heard from inside.

"... A lot of our members, they need to realize that there are other avenues out there that we can push this information to them a whole lot faster, a whole lot quicker," Spaulding said.

You can sign up for those alerts in Shelby County by clicking here. For those in other communities, check for local emergency text alerts through your county's system online.

In both Shelby and Adair counties, officials said the issues with sirens will be resolved in the coming days.

"We will have things that will go wrong, but rest assured that we correct those things," Spaulding said.

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