By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
Okarche’s public works employees put themselves at risk during Monday’s severe weather to repair a failed storm siren.
Police and town officials decided to sound off the sirens early Wednesday afternoon but the fuses and backup batteries failed.
“We tried to set it off when El Reno set theirs off and it didn’t work,” town board member Matt Blackwood said. “The guys rushed to the bay station there and the battery backup was several years old and had been blown. Some of the fuses were blown. It had been neglected for a long time. It’s been sounding off on Saturdays.”
The siren was repaired temporarily. Blackwood said other sirens have been in disrepair for years. Former Town Administrator Richard Raupe was the Emergency Management Director but Blackwood was named as the interim director after Raupe’s position was terminated last month.
“We had other sirens around town that haven’t worked in years,” Blackwood said. “Any time it was brought up we were told by previous city officials that the one was sufficient and a tornado siren is for people who are outside and not weather aware. Well what if it’s midnight? It’s different when people are sleeping or you’re in the middle of severe weather you don’t hear things as well. We’re looking into making sure those others are operational.”
Early weather forecasts indicated tornadoes could have been active as late as 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. Storms waged their full wrath on Okarche just before 11 p.m. when several homes and the Center of Family Love lost power.
“We lost power for a couple of hours,” Blackwood said. “Maybe from 10:30 to midnight or 12:30.”
Okarche police officers were assigned to patrol the streets and urge citizens to take shelter.
Okarche Elementary School was opened as a shelter for more than 50 people who arrived for safety.
“Although the system failed, I would like to send a huge thank you to our public works department for their immediate and quick response to rectifying the issue,” Okarche Police Chief Forrest Smith posted to the department’s Facebook page Monday. “They continued to work on the system during the storm, sacrificing their own safety to get the sirens repaired. The siren system is currently operational and the public works department will seek immediate long-term repairs in the next few days.”
Blackwood said the town officials are looking into having the sirens tested quarterly or annually.
“There’s people who go around and test these,” he said. “We’re checking into that. That will be on the next meeting for discussion.”
The next town board meeting has been moved to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 28 because of the Memorial Day holiday.
