Many Winnebago County tornado sirens out of service, residents urged to sign up for alerts

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Residents in Winnebago County are raising concerns after learning that many of the county’s tornado sirens aren’t working.

Sue Schomber lives in a quiet neighborhood in Pecatonica.

Recently, she noticed it was too quiet on the first Tuesday of the month, when the County conducts its monthly test of the first alert tornado sirens.

“As I look back on it, I don’t think it’s gone off. The tornado warning hasn’t gone off, at least not all of this year,” she said.

With tragic news of a disaster in Texas over the weekend, Schomber decided to find out why she hadn’t heard the monthly storm warning test.

“So that’s when I just called and I just asked, you know, what’s going on? He says, yes, a whole western part of Winnebago County. They’re not working at all,” she recalled.

Tornado sirens across all of Winnebago County were out of service.

Some need battery power replacement, others have connectivity issues with the network, according to Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana.

“We’re 100% aware that we have some issues with some of the sirens. We understand that they need maintenance. So this is not like, you know, we’re surprised about,” said Caruana.

The Sheriff said the County has been working with the siren company American Signal for months. So far, 40 sirens have been repaired, but dozens still remain inoperable.

In the meantime, residents are encouraged to sign up for the Winnebago County Emergency Notification System to receive alerts on their mobile devices.

“They’ll send out an alert to say, ‘Hey, there’s severe weather in the area.’ Sirens are great but let’s not rely on them 100%,” Caruana said. “We’re getting them fixed. We will continue getting fixed. But I think we’re [talking about a] system that could be antiquated. And we, as residents of Winnebago County, the Rockford region, need to stay prudent. And what is the next level of protection for each one of us?”

Caruana said he did not have an estimate on how long it would take to get all the sirens back up and running.

Until then, Schomber said she feels less safe.

“It doesn’t make you have a good, you know, great deal of confidence,” she said. “And with what happened [in Texas], what is their plan if … we do get a bad storm? What’s the county’s plan there?”