Another way I’ve been humbled in the wake of the tornadoes that tore through Nashville was to learn I believed in a myth about weather warning sirens. Namely, I thought they were supposed to alert us to tornadoes, which they are, but I thought that meant even when we’re inside our homes.
Nope.
I learned this from an asshole after I posted something on Nextdoor about not hearing them. Here’s part of what I wrote:
Okay, to be fair, maybe he’s not an asshole, but I interpreted his reply as condescending and rather asshole-ish:
When the reporter had come to talk to me, she had mentioned how sirens were meant to alert farmers or something, not people in their homes. So here was this guy (as well as a couple of other people who put it more nicely) on Nextdoor also saying sirens were meant to warn you outdoors, not indoors.
Which didn’t make any sense to me. I could’ve sworn that once upon a time, if not here in Tennessee, then in Colorado, Arizona or Florida, that I watched an authority figure, like a sheriff or equivalent, explain that sirens are a crucial weapon in helping to warn people anytime, including at night (I really believe he said especially at night), that severe weather is coming. The goal was to try and save as many lives as possible, and as much advanced warning as possible was a way to do that.
But I don’t remember where we were at the time. We’ve been here in Nash 15 years so it was a long time ago whenever it was.
Plus we live here now. What happened decades ago somewhere else doesn’t matter.
But why make something to only warn people when they’re outdoors? Why the hell sound them around midnight on Monday night then? Who the hell is outdoor in a thunderstorm then?
Because this didn’t make sense to me, I had to check it all out for myself. I found the info under Nashville.gov’s Office of Emergency Management section:
Sirens work great in clear weather. I hear them loud and clear inside my home when they test them each month.
Factor in fierce winds and thunder, though…they become super faint. I only heard them once Wayne woke me. They’d never have done it on their own. Many of my neighbors also were shocked they didn’t hear them.
Which I now know they’re not supposed to.
Needless to say I invested in a NOAA weather radio. (That link will lead you to my Amazon affiliate account. If you click through and end up buying anything, I may earn a small commission, at no cost to you.)
It’s super tiny, but in addition to NOAA weather alerts and a radio function, it had these features I also liked:
- Four ways of charging: via USB, solar power, hand crank and batteries.
- Two lights: a flashlight and a reading light.
- It can provide power to a cell phone or small tablet. (Although I’m a power bank Nazi. I have at least two charged at all times.)
When we lived in Florida I had toyed with the idea of getting a weather radio, but didn’t. I’m not sure how much they were back then, but maybe I thought they were a lot? Who knows.
When we first moved to Nashville I also looked into getting one. I want to say they were $50 at the time. Maybe. I can’t really remember. But I remember talking myself out of getting one for whatever reason.
The storms this week, and what I learned after calling the news and then posting on Nextdoor, had me heading over to Amazon to look at them again.
Which leads me to another revelation I’ve had this week: Assholes can be a pain in the ass, both literally and figuratively, but they do serve a purpose.
In this case, an asshole lead me to further investigate the purpose of sirens, which I believed did one thing, but turns out that was a myth. One I’m not alone in believing.
So if you learned something from this too, you can also thank that asshole for it. He might’ve helped save more lives than one.