Siren Enthusiast mentioned in local news paper

[kswx29]

Although this is old news, it is the first time i have seen it. I thought it was pretty cool, a siren enthusiast like one of us being mentioned in the news paper!

"WICHITA -- Damian Mayes loves tornado sirens so much that he bought two of them over the Internet and hauled them home from Texas, the trailer sagging under the weight of the 1,000-pound machines.

But he quickly realized that it is one thing to have tornado sirens sitting in your basement, another to actually hear them wail.

Now, Mayes has donated the matched pair of Thunderbolt Model 1000-T Outdoor Warning Devices to Sedgwick County's Emergency Management Department.

County officials say the donation means they can put up four new sirens next year instead of two and save taxpayers about $20,000.

Mayes put only one condition on his donation -- that he be there to help when the sirens are sounded for the first time.

"I wanted to be able to decide what pitch they run at," he said.

A special-education paraeducator with the Wichita school district, Mayes has been fascinated by sirens since he was 4 years old and his mother would take him to a park to listen to the weekly siren test."

The rest is available at:
http://cjonline.com/stories/081001/kan_tornado.shtml

[Gents']

But he quickly realized that it is one thing to have tornado sirens sitting in your basement, another to actually hear them wail.

Fascinating story. When a siren is not being used and just in storage you can sometimes think "What a waste of valuable space" that is until you remind yourself of the last time it was running and the insane grin it provided you with!

If we had any sort of siren network up here I would love to donate mine but im sure local councils/groups would never accept donations of any kind. In England its a race to see who can spend their yearly budget the fastest, not to save it.

[Conky 2000]

Is Damion on this board?

[JasonC]

Thats an old article from several years ago. Yea, he used to be on the board but I'm not sure anymore.

[AllSafe]

I've talked to the guy before; he has one of the sirens sitting around the back of the Grove Campus of Wichita Area Technical College. I met the guy the first time I went there to see the old siren...he's actually allowed to maintain and adjust it himself. He said that he has three Thunderbolts at home, including a 1003.