Tornado Warning procedures in schools

[Trey]

All the drills I had, they turned on the bells and pulsed them. 800

[Nelso90]

My elementary school had a screamer S-10 right next to it, and it worked okay. The teachers can't even speak over the 2001 that's there now!

[Spotter/Chaser]

In Kenosha County, Wisconsin most of the schools are either next to, or within hearing range of a T-135. When they hear them during school, they know to initiate their tornado procedures. I'm not sure what they all do for drills, though. The sirens are always tested on Saturday mornings, except for the statewide tornado drill, which usually happens on a Thursday afternoon in April.

[Conky 2000]

In Hamilton County, I'm pretty sure that the sirens would go off in case of a tornado (isn't that the purpose of them?? ). At my school, the last tornado warning was like this:
(Doing Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry crossword, PA comes on)
Principal: Ok, guys, I know you're going to kill me for this, but we, like, have to have a tornado drill before the end of the year. (this was on the second-to-last day of school.)
Us: *random chatting, moving about as fast as Bert the Turtle in Duck and Cover*
Isn't it a little...well, I don't know what to call it...weird to set a siren off? I mean, couldn't that alert somebody not at the school and misinform them that there is a real tornado?

[Spotter/Chaser]

Hamilton County, in what state?

[kswx29]

At my first two elementary schools, they sounded a tone over the intercom which sounded exactly like the one in this video:
http://www.49abcnews.com/videos/2006/mar/14/1157/
At my first school (Which had a basement) we went down there and lined up. At my second school, which had no basement, we went into the center part of the building and when everyone was in the "Tornado Refuge Areas" they would close these huge steel doors. (They were also used as fire doors when the fire alarm was sounded. Altho only 1 would shut because there was no exit unless you went through the doors) At my third and last elementary school, they sounded a continuous class start bell over the intercom, we would then go into the hall, sit down and face the wall with our hands over our head. At my middle school, depending on what part of the building meant whether you went to the basement or to a center room with no windows. 1/4 of the school went into the "Tornado Tunnels" as they called them, 1/4 went into a room downstairs in the basement, 2/4 went into 2 special rooms with no windows. The alarm was a on/off bell ring, here is a recording i made (Yes that is a Thunderbolt you hear)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFjI4m0_2D0 (All clear bell heard at end)
At my current high school, they ring the class change bell continuously, and since my school has 3 floors, everyone piles into the first floor hallway and just stands around. Here is a short recording i made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uwj4ezWV8o

[NanSiren]

Here's mine:

Van Buren Elementary in Janesville, WI (ca. 1984 or so)

It was over the loudspeakers, and started at 1100hz then dropped to 1050hz where it commenced to do a siren.

Click here to watch Updated-Van-Buren-Elementary-school-Tornado-Alert

High School in Austin, MN: It was the switchboard operator who came over the intercom. Later on it might have been proceeded by some type of tone.

Ellis Middle School (Austin, MN ca. 1989)
Hi-lo
Click here to watch Simulation-of-the-Ellis-Middle-School-Austin-MN-Tornado-Alert

Riverland Community College:
Also over the intercom, it was a rapid stuttering tone.

Click here to watch Riverland-Community-College-Austin-MN-Tordado-Alert-sound

[Melvin Potts]

I taught in both an elementary and middle school in Cobb County, GA(elementary from 1971-1975; middle from 1975-1985).

The general procedure was to make announcement about tornado warning over PA.

I was chairman of the Safety Committee at the middle school for several years. According to county policy, the take cover signal was to be alternate long/short bells...but neither school ever did this.

I'll never forget the afternoon..about 15 minutes before dismissal..when the take cover announcement was made over the PA system. This was no drill; it was the real thing. My classroom was upstairs, so we had to go downstairs to the middle hall, which was also shared by those in the library, the home ec lab, and the shop & art classes(which were in building connected to the main one only by breezeway).

You don't know what fun is until you have a room full of 7th graders and something like this happens!

For some unknown reason, the city of Smyrna didn't activate the siren system that afternoon.

Each spring the state of GA held a statewide tornado drill. It was always during school hours. County notified all the schools by means of some radio receiver in each school office. No matter what else happened, school administrators weren't supposed to initiate the drill unless the central office sent warning over the receivers.

Procedure for this statewide drill was to issue a tornado watch, which might last anywhere from few minutes to an hour or more. Then a tornado warning was issued. One of the drill's purposes was to discover how quickly the warning got out to various communities.

One year somebody at the Smyrna police dept.(sirens could be activated from the PD or the EM office in basement of that buidling) activated the sirens when the watch was announced. We kept waiting for the take cover announcement, but it didn't come until sometime later. Needless to say, the kids were on edge for a while.

[Thunderbolt 612]

Yikes! The first one would scare the little kids to death, the second one sounds like a Hormann/ASC on speed, and the third one sounds like an ATI about to go dead.

For more on the high-low tone, listen to this sound and compare it to the second clip.

http://www.hormannamerica.com/products/ ... /hi-lo.wav

[SirenEnthusiast360]

I have no idea how they did the tornado drill when I was in elementary school. All I know is that it was initiated through the school's PA system, manufactured by Bogen. On a related topic, What sort of tornado drill procedure would you recomend for a school that deals with students with special needs? I was in an all special education school from 2001-2005. They did not have any sort of tornado alarm, nor were they close to a siren. All they had was a Bogen PA system, and the only time it made noise is when someone was called to the office.