Marshall County EMA Director discusses warning sirens

Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at 2:00 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

Marshall County Emergency Management Director Jack Garner talked about tornado sirens on Monday.

During Sunday’s storm, sirens in Marshall County did not sound. Garner said the county's policy is to set off sirens when the National Weather Service issues a Tornado Warning for the county or when a trained storm spotter reports a funnel cloud and/or tornado.

During Sunday's storm, neither of these criteria occurred, thus sirens were not sounded.

Some sirens are triggered automatically at the Marshall County Central Dispatch Center, while others are controlled by different jurisdictions, usually fire departments. Garner said, “It's also worth pointing out that the Donaldson area does NOT have any sirens close by.”

Most of the sirens across the county were purchased by townships or municipalities decades ago.

The primary function of warning sirens in Marshall County is to quickly alert people outdoors to potential danger, encouraging them to take immediate action for safety.

The EMA director said, “We seek to be honest and transparent with the public and hope this clarifies things. We also understand that this may spark some questions from community members, and we will take your concerns into account.”

In Union Township, there are 11 sirens. Between Green and Walnut Townships, there is only one siren in Argos, and in Tippecanoe, there is only 1. Bourbon Township has 1 warning siren, and it is in the town of Bourbon. In Center Township, there are 6 sirens with 1 located north of Inwood, 1 on 12 Road at Plymouth Motor Speedway, and 4 within the City of Plymouth. Both West Township and Polk Township have no warning sirens. In North Township, there is 1 siren located in LaPaz, and in German Township, there are 2 warning sirens at Lake of the Woods, and 9 in and around Bremen.