Sirens in Topeka sounded early Friday Morning

[kswx29]

At 12:30AM Friday Morning the sirens here went off. I was at a cousins house in Topeka when they went off. They live 1/2mile from a 1000T set to the highest voltage tap and just over a mile from the single tone thunderbolt in Downtown. Those things sounded very creepy sounding together and echoing. We was not under a Tornado Warning but there was a rotating cloud spotted in the North side of the city. It is kind of a good thing the sirens were sounded anyway because shortly after the sirens were sounded 70MPH tore thru the city creating tones of damage. The entire SE side of Topeka (As well as much of the rest of the city) did not have power for 4+ hours. It was very creepy driving down the road and it being pitch black. It was kind of like the movie "Twister" because there was huge treelimbs down everywhere. Anyway, I did not have my camcorder at the time but i did manage to get the newscast and it shows some sort of device used to sound the sirens. Does anyone know what that device is?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuBwlP5ISOQ
Close up of device:
http://www.dylan.helixweb.net/Files/0200.bmp

[mgear]

Sorry I have no idea what it is. And I would almost be crying driving home in the pitch black dark night time with limbs down reminding me of twister but I am glad you made it home safely.