Editor's note: This story was originally published in the .
St. Clair County thought a new, for dangerous weather would be installed by late spring or early summer 2023, but the project has been delayed by a year.
The county signed a $2.49 million contract with Acoustic Technology, Inc. Systems in late 2022 to replace 79 existing sirens across the county and install 43 new ones. It was paid for with federal from the American Rescue Plan.
Today, the company is a little over halfway done with siren installations that began in 2023, according to Herb Simmons, director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency.
Simmons said the first sirens were installed in the western part of the county that did not have functioning sirens for many years, including East St. Louis, Cahokia Heights and Dupo.
ATI Systems is currently working to install sirens in Smithton, O鈥橣allon, Millstadt and Hecker. Simmons said the company should be finished with the entire county by May or June.
Supply chain issues have caused the biggest delays in their work, according to Simmons.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like everything else: they had delays with parts,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hearing it everywhere, every project out there.鈥�
ATI Systems CEO Ray Bassiouni confirmed the supply chain delays. He said the company was also tied up because it was awarded many military contracts at the same time. Another factor in the delays is that it has been supplying equipment for the Israel-Hamas war, according to Bassiouni.
Sirens alert people who are outside that dangerous weather like a tornado or severe storm is approaching and they should head inside. St. Clair County鈥檚 new sirens will sound when the National Weather Service puts out an alert.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited that we鈥檙e going to have a uniform system,鈥� Simmons said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be another layer of redundancy to warn our citizens.鈥�
The county also continues to use the mobile weather alert system CodeRED. Residents can sign up for the CodeRED alerts by .
Lexi Cortes is a reporter with the , a news partner of 漏 2024 外网天堂.
