Keeping you Safe: Updating Rochester\'s warning sirens

When severe and dangerous weather strikes á we rely on a system of sirens to give us warnings.

While harsh conditions aren't in the forecast á the city of rochester is getting ready á updating its siren system.

Kimt news 3's annalise johnson is finding out which sirens are affected and how they will better protect the city á annalise?

Xxx katie á i'm here at the youth baseball fields in rochester... and this siren is going to be replaced with one that gives prerecorded voice warnings when severe weather is approaching... to give people at the sports complex plenty of time to find shelter.

This siren will be moved to another location.xxx when the rain falls á and the wind howls... paying attention to sirens like this one when severe weather is on our way can make a big difference.

"it comes down to life safety."

Rochester's emergency management director ken jones and deputy emergency management director ryan ostreng deputy planned some changes to rochester's warning siren system.

"this expansion of our siren system gives us the ability to warn and alert people early for the conditions of a severe thunderstorm so that they can seek shelter."

Crews aren't working today because of the weather á but work started this week at four different locations.

Two sirens are being relocated á one is being upgraded to a voice modular system that can send tone signals (and programmed voice messages á and another new voice modular system is being placed.

"that preá recorded message can be delivered 60 or 30 minutes, 15 minutes, or at the time of a severe thunderstorm should it pop up."

Jones and ostreng say the voice modular siren á like the one at mcquillan fields á has been proven to be more effective in alerting people and gives them more time to leave sports fields.

"that tone that goes off, what exactly does that mean?

So when you have people that are moreso outside in the parks setting, you want to maybe give them a little more specific information so that they can react."

Some of the sirens are being relocated to cover more of the city.

"some locations that were underserved for the current sirens that we have installed out in the field."

To alert rochester to take shelter.

Tornado sirens are designed to be heard outdoors á not indoors.

To warn people who are already inside á the city of rochester is encouraging people to sign up for their "rochester alert system" which can send messages by email á text á and phone calls.

Only about 6á thousand people are signed up right now á and emergency management would like to double that.

Live in rochester annalise johnson kimt news 3./// thank you annalise.

We'll show you how you can sign up on our website at kimt dot com.

As always á you can stay up to date with the latest weather on our storm team 3 weather app.///