New emergency sirens add increased coverage, updated preparedness to Hampton

The City of Hampton’s emergency preparedness received an upgrade recently.

Last month, three new emergency sirens were installed throughout Hampton to replace damaged and existing ones.

The move to incorporate new sirens stemmed from last year, when one at the corner of Olive Avenue and 140th Street quit working. Hampton Public Works Director Doug Tarr said the city could not fix that siren, as the model was too old to find spare parts and no one could refurbish it.

As city officials discussed the broken siren, they determined that the remaining sirens in the city could stand an upgrade as well. The city targeted the siren at North Side for a replacement and elected to keep the one at Band Shell Park operational. They elected to add a new siren by East Park.

The city secured a Foster and Evelyn Barkema Charitable Trust Grant for $15,000 and a grant through the USDA for $24,500 to pay for more than half the approximately $71,000 project.

Now with four working sirens – three new – throughout the community, Tarr said Hampton is well covered in the event of an emergency.

“What that’ll do is give us a lot better alert system for outdoor warnings,” he said. “Even by today’s standards of cell phones, if someone is out mowing, they won’t hear their cellphone go off.

“Tornado sirens are efficient in alerting people in severe weather and, god forbid, civil defense emergencies,” he added. “Hopefully we don’t need them but they’re nice to have if we do need them.”

Tarr said the sirens are integrated with other new models that have been installed throughout the county, which means they can be activated from the Law Enforcement Center.

Tarr said the completion of the project is perfect timing, as tornado season has arrived. While the sirens have not gone off in Hampton yet, Franklin County has been placed under a tornado warning already this year.

“I would say on average, they go off one or two times a year, but some years they may not go off at all and other years, they may be used four times,” he said. “This is just another tool in the toolbox.”