The Central Jackson County Emergency Management Agency (CJCEMA) has upgraded the storm siren system for the cities of Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Lake Tapawingo and unincorporated portions of Jackson County within the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District.
The new system allows for automatic and more geographically accurate severe weather warnings and continual testing and monitoring.
With the system upgrade, severe weather sirens will automatically make the first sound as soon as the National Weather Service polygon is placed on the affected geographic area. CJCEMA officials and the Blue Springs Police Department Dispatch Center will also continue to have manual control of the system.
Additionally, the new system splits the jurisdiction in half by North/South and at I-70 in order to get more accurate warnings by geographic area. If a tornado warning is issued in an area that would only cover the southern portion of CJCEMA’s boundaries, only the sirens south of I-70 would be activated, and vice versa.
To increase accuracy, the new system allows the CJCEMA to run a silent check each day to ensure each siren has power and is communicating properly with the network. This enables our team to address issues with unresponsive sirens immediately. Additionally, CJCEMA will continue to physically sound the sirens on the first Wednesday of the month, weather permitting.