HAMDEN, Ohio — The outdoor warning siren serving this Vinton County village is not working correctly, and residents should not rely on it to signal severe weather until it is repaired, the county’s Emergency Management Agency said this week.
The agency flagged the malfunction in a Facebook post also announcing that Vinton County will conduct its regular test of the countywide outdoor siren system at noon on Nov. 23. Residents who hear sirens sound that day do not need to take shelter or call 911, since the activation is a scheduled test rather than a response to an actual emergency.
Outdoor warning sirens are designed to alert people who are outdoors to seek shelter and turn to local media, a weather radio or a mobile phone for additional information; they are not built to be heard clearly indoors. With the Hamden siren out of service, the agency is urging residents of the village, which sits along State Route 93 in Vinton County and is home to roughly 700 people, to make sure they have another way to receive emergency alerts.
The Vinton County Emergency Management Agency, headed by Director William Faught, is organized under Ohio law to coordinate emergency planning, response and recovery for the county. Its responsibilities include maintaining an all-hazards emergency operations plan, coordinating disaster relief, pursuing preparedness grants, training first responders and the public, and overseeing the county’s Local Emergency Planning Committee, which tracks hazardous-chemical risks.
Faught asked residents with questions about the siren issue or other emergency management matters in Vinton County to call his office at 740-596-3524.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Vinton County Emergency Management Agency.
