Tornado Sirens Malfunction Throughout Northwest Suburbs

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — If you heard tornado sirens Thursday, but didn't see any tornados, you're not hearing things. Officials from the Northwest Central Dispatch System, which provides 911 services for several communities, said the sirens went off during testing at around 1 p.m.

"The sirens were not supposed to be activated. We are investigating why it happened," John Ferraro, executive director of the Arlington Heights-based company, told Patch. "That involves interviewing all the relevant personnel, having the vendor do a full diagnostic test on the equipment, and determining steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. "

NWCDS oversees emergency services for Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Prospect, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg and Streamwood.

NWCDS oversees a combined population of the communities served of nearly 500,000 and covers an area totaling 170 square miles, according to its website. It states that when outdoor warning sirens are activated, residents should seek shelter immediately. NWCDS tests its sirens at 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday of each month.

The news comes during a week of heightened anxiety among Illinois residents after a tornado hit 631 homes, primarily in the Naperville and Woodridge areas, on Sunday.

The agency was testing the sirens to find out why they didn't sound in Elk Grove Village and Mount Prospect during Sunday's storm despite tornado warnings in those municipalities.

Why Some Residents Didn't Hear Tornado Sirens Before Sunday Storm

"While there are several means of notifying residents about oncoming severe weather, many of our residents rely on the air sirens as an indication to seek shelter immediately. That system needs to work every time in order for it to be effective," Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said in a news release. "Failure of the system is unacceptable by Elk Grove standards and the system must work 100 percent of the time to protect our residents to the utmost safety to which they are entitled."

The Village said it exploring the possibility of additional redundancies to ensure that when the six outdoor tornado alert sirens located in Elk Grove Village are activated, they work as intended. While no tornado touched down in the Village Sunday night, officials said they want to "take every necessary step to ensure that the alert system does its job effectively every time it’s needed."

“To have system failures twice in less than one week is unacceptable because residents are looking to us for guidance, information and advice on how to keep themselves safe during weather emergencies. When they do, we need to be right every time,” Johnson said.

NWCDS tested the connection between the activation system and the sirens on Monday, and it performed correctly, according to the agency and Elk Grove Village officials.

"We know that the siren system needs to be reliable 100 percent of the time, as it is a trusted warning source during severe weather," Ferraro said. "We are very sorry this happened, and we will get it corrected."