Severe Weather alerts

[PMAC]

Tornado and severe weather is here. A year ago, we identified some vulnerabilities in our alert system at work (assembly shop and welding shop - 2 buildings). During the MN tornado drill (side note - postponed due to receiving a hefty blizzard that day!), our employees could not hear the county sirens due to the building structures, no windows, noise from work - ventilation systems, welding, wearing ear protection, etc. And, the internal alarm system we triggered could only be heard if you were within 40 feet. Not everyone is that close. This company has always relied on people interaction to get the message out about severe weather, fire, etc. - big exposure.

Anyways, our safety committee agreed we should research some options. We've received bids on strobe/siren/alert systems $$$$$. We've received bids on ""enhancing" our alarm system. $$$ We've looked into severe weather radios, loading NWS apps on phones (everyone has a phone, but not necessarily tech savvy), megaphones

The thing is, the best options are super expensive and we don't have buy-in from management.

I wanted to throw this out there to see if there was an inexpensive but effective alert system/process/whatever that you may have experience with.

Here are the 2 weather radios - anyone use these, are they any good?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071HFV836/?tag=atomicindus08-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00176T9OY/?tag=atomicindus08-20


What other suggestions do you have?

 

[SGKent]

weather radios are great, I've used one since we encountered several outbreaks in May 1982 traveling cross country. They do testing so it will go off at least one day a month, and the one I have does not reset. You have to turn the warning off. Also they often have batteries in them in case the power goes out, which it can when a storm is nearby. In that case someone is going to have to change the batteries once a year on all the radios. Also if it is a metal building the radios may be blocked from outside signal. Sounds like you need to add alarms and lights to the existing system by adding a relay tripped by the existing system.

 

[greg13]

I found that the broadcast warnings are too general and cover too large of an area. I was getting warnings for areas 60-90 miles away. It got to the point that I shut it off to keep from hearing alerts that did not apply to me.

 

[matt_i]

Do you have any electrical engineering on-site?

If so I wouldn't think it a big costly deal to wire up a group of 120vac strobe lights and or buzzers other than buying the materials. There are some loud things out there. Look at Federal Signal. Controlled by nothing more exotic than a toggle switch.

You need one alert for take-shelter and one for evacuate. And good to have an all-clear signal as well.

Our plant relies on the front desk/security desk to sound the alarms. They receive faxes from somewhere (thinking subscription to some service, I don't have the details) and they have some software with weather radar that I've seen which might not be anything more than Accu Weather.

 

[Robbie B]

Tornado and severe weather is here. A year ago, we identified some vulnerabilities in our alert system at work (assembly shop and welding shop - 2 buildings). During the MN tornado drill (side note - postponed due to receiving a hefty blizzard that day!), our employees could not hear the county sirens due to the building structures, no windows, noise from work - ventilation systems, welding, wearing ear protection, etc. And, the internal alarm system we triggered could only be heard if you were within 40 feet. Not everyone is that close. This company has always relied on people interaction to get the message out about severe weather, fire, etc. - big exposure.



Anyways, our safety committee agreed we should research some options. We've received bids on strobe/siren/alert systems $$$$$. We've received bids on ""enhancing" our alarm system. $$$ We've looked into severe weather radios, loading NWS apps on phones (everyone has a phone, but not necessarily tech savvy), megaphones



The thing is, the best options are super expensive and we don't have buy-in from management.



I wanted to throw this out there to see if there was an inexpensive but effective alert system/process/whatever that you may have experience with.



Here are the 2 weather radios - anyone use these, are they any good?



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071HFV836/?tag=atomicindus08-20



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00176T9OY/?tag=atomicindus08-20





What other suggestions do you have?

We’ve got that particular midland at my house. Damn thing scared the **** out of me 4 times Monday night when all that mess rolled through here. It’s very loud but idk that it would be loud enough over machinery. If the higher ups aren’t hot on the idea maybe a call to OSHA and a mention of the fact that there is not enough of a warning for the employees might motivate them.


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[cvairwerks]

Our system has 4 120+ dB horns in each hangar. Can’t hear them or the announcements if we have an engine running. The solution was to add 4 big strobes to the horn installations. When they go off, all 200 hangar and building exterior horns and strobes go off. No engines running on our side or the military side, and the alarms can be heard up to about 10 blocks off the facility, depending on wind and traffic.

When the system is triggered, the strobes go off and about 5 seconds later the horns start.