Letter From the Mayor, John Kahl
With spring and summer comes the threat of severe weather, including severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. We encourage all residents to be prepared should any severe weather strike East Peoria. The City takes its responsibilities very seriously and recognizes the importance of ensuring that all 15 outdoor early warning sirens within its Corporate limits remain operational, that its Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) remains current and that those employees who are responsible for implementing the various aspects of the EOP be prepared to do so should the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) be activated.
Always grateful,
Emergency Services and Disaster Agency (ESDA) funds are allocated in the annual budget by the City Council each fiscal year for the purpose of providing for the maintenance, repair, and if need be, the replacement of any one of the 15 outdoor early warning (tornado) sirens. All sirens have battery back-up systems. All sirens are tested on the first Tuesday of each month at 10am, as long as Tazewell County is not under any severe weather advisory at that time. The monthly test consists of a steady blast mode for 30 seconds, an oscillating mode for 30 seconds, and concludes with a voice message announcement.
In years past, sirens were activated if a storm was located anywhere in Tazewell County. Sirens are currently activated here in East Peoria by Tazewell County Consolidated Communications dispatch personnel only if East Peoria and those communities immediately surrounding us are listed by the local NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office that is based in Lincoln as being in a storm’s path. Certain City personnel also retain the authority to activate the sirens within East Peoria Corporate limits if need be. Thanks to recent advancements that have been made in technology and a willingness by all interested Tazewell County stakeholders to share in the costs necessary to upgrade the current equipment here in Tazewell County, we will soon be upgrading to a County-wide automated system.
Once the new technology is installed, the sirens will be triggered by a storm based warning polygon that is issued by the local NOAA NWS Weather Forecast Office. By focusing on the true threat area, storm based warning polygons have improved NWS warning accuracy and quality. The warned area is defined by latitude and longitude coordinates and depicted by polygons. Instead of issuing warnings by county, the local NOAA NWS Weather Forecast Office is now able to narrow its focus on a portion of the county that has the greatest threat for being impacted by severe weather. Once a storm based warning is issued, only those sirens located within the polygon will be activated. While dispatch personnel and certain City personnel will continue to retain the authority and have the ability to manually activate the sirens within East Peoria Corporate limits if need be, this new technology removes the human aspect of deciding whether or not to activate the sirens.
We will update the public once the new equipment is in place. We always encourage all residents to take seriously any storm based warnings and to follow basic severe weather safety guidelines should we ever find ourselves in harm’s way.
Always grateful,
John