Mount Airy Town Council Votes To Install Outdoor Warning Sirens

During the September council meeting, the Mount Airy Inclement Weather Task Force presented to the town council our formal recommendation to purchase and install 2 American Signal Corporation T-130 sirens to alert residents outdoors of impending life threatening weather conditions. The town council voted in favor 3-1 of our recommendation, and it is expected that the sirens will be installed by the end of this year (2026).

Luci Riegel (Task Force Secretary) and Myself (Task Force Chair) presenting our recommendation to the Town Council - Photo credit to Mount Airy Town Council (CCTV)

These sirens will add an additional layer of warning to our residents, ensuring those who are spending time outdoors receive critical alerts to seek shelter from tornadoes, extreme winds, or severe flash flooding. Mount Airy has a solid history with all of these hazards, and this system will ensure the safety of our residents as they enjoy their time outdoors. In the last ten years, there have been more than a dozen tornadoes that have touched down within 10 miles of Mount Airy, including direct hits in 2012 and 2018 from 3 separate tornadoes, not to mention a deadly flash flood in 2025, and many severe thunderstorms with damaging to destructive wind gusts.

Tornado damage at Knills Farm Market in downtown Mount Airy in 2018 - NWS Balt/Wash

As the Chairperson, I want to give a special thanks to all members of the Inclement Weather Task Force (Meteorologist Zach Badders, Streets & Roads Commision Chair Luci Riegel, and Karen Spicer), former Mayor Larry Hushour, Town Staff (Barney Quinn- Town Engineer, Graceful Action- Main Street Manager, Julianne Freidman- Assistant Town Engineer, and Colleen Riley- Executive Administrative Assistant) and the Mount Airy Town Council. I would also like to give a special shout out to two particularly engaged and hard working individuals - Luci Riegel and Council Member Steve Domotor. We could not have gotten this far without these hard working individuals, their dedication, and background knowledge in working a project like this.

Luci is the secretary to the Task Force, and continuously went out of her way to help me (someone who has severe stage fright and has never worked in this type of group setting before) get used to being the task force chair. She even joined one of our meetings from a cruise on her vacation to assist in voting on our meeting minutes. Talk about dedication!

Council Member Domotor is our Task Force Liason, and has gone above and beyond the typical role of a liason. Council Member Domotor supported us from the very beginning, engaged in public outreach on multiple occasions, and provided updated reports to the town council at each and every council meeting. I firmly believe having Council Member Domotor on our Task Force played a significant role in our success, as he had ample background knowledge in how we should present our resolution and recommendations to the council in a way that they would feel comfortable supporting.

What will the sirens do?

These sirens are designed to alert people who are outdoors, that dangerous weather that could result in severe impacts to the town is imminent. There will be a set criteria in place that acts as an automatic trigger for the sirens. This includes tornado warnings, destructive tagged severe thunderstorm warnings (For winds >80mph), and considerable or catastrophic tagged flash flood warning (Severe flash flooding). These same warnings trigger WEA (wireless emergency alerts) on your cell phones. The sirens will only be activated for these alerts when they include a portion or all of the municipal limits of Mount Airy.

These outdoor warning sirens are not a replacement for other warning means, and are not designed to be heard indoors. However, they will provide an extra layer of protection for those of us who spend time outdoors, and may not be paying attention to our phones at the time a warning is issued. The sirens will sound a single tone, alerting people to immediately move indoors and tune to local media for additional information on what weather hazard is expected.