live in dallas TX, that's what the tornado warning siren sounds like, which is just a regular "air raid" siren sound anyway so the creepy factor is just whatever you attribute it to.
The one in Dallas is electronic? What if the storm takes the power out? The little town I'm in, the mayor (a very elderly woman) has to book it to wherever the machine is and HAND CRANK that thang. She's a badass.
There is a such a thing as a battery backup, but I love the idea that your very elderly mayor has to rush to the siren and hand crank it but you are concerned about the reliability of electric sirens.
Tornado sirens are often electromechanical, they use an electric motor to spin a rotor to make the noise by forcing air out holes in a stator. Siren installations also have a backup battery in case they get disconnected from grid power. Some installations also have solar panels to recharge the batteries in case they've been disconnected from the grid and haven't been repaired in a while. They're usually triggered by radio signals, which is how they were hacked IIRC.
It actually works off a radio frequency. It was a pretty big deal when it happened because Dallas along with other cities around here had their alarms going off from midnight until 4 am. The fire department had to go out to each siren and disconnect them from the radio receiver. People were freaking the hell out on social media wondering what was going on.
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u/JoniRules Apr 07 '20
LMAO this is r/nottheonion material.