Tornado season is months away but Coweta residents can breathe easier now that 16 warning sirens have been installed around the county and located in the outdoor areas where people gather.
Coweta Emergency Management Agency Director Jay Jones recently told county commissioners that the county’s special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST), in conjunction with two grants from state and federal sources, provided the funding for the first phase of the system that includes 16 outdoor warning sirens placed in areas of the county, such as parks, schools and community centers, where large numbers of people gather.
“The system automatically sets off siren warnings for National Weather Service-issued tornado warnings,” Jones said.
Sirens in the Newnan area are located at 100 International Park, 135 Heery Road, 22 Madras Parkway, 2970 Ga. Highway 16 East, and west of Newnan at 146 Kennon Street and 1792 Welcome Road. Sirens are located at 23 Colley Street in Grantsville and at the fairgrounds on Pine Road.
Additional sirens located in east Coweta include 1661 Ebenezer Church Road, 1011 Andrew Bailey Road, 3370 Fischer Road and 400 Ga. Highway 154 South.
And in southeast Coweta, sirens are located at 171 Magnolia Street in Haralson and in Senoia at 408 Seavy Street, 740 Rockaway Road and 505 Howard Road.
Newnan had eight additional sirens currently operating on a different system, Jones said.
Jones said the system also performs tests on the first Wednesday of each month. The test includes a 30-second tone followed by a pre-recorded warning message indicating, “This is a test of the Coweta County warning system.”
The Whelen WPS2909 mass notification warning system is an omni-directional, all-hazards voice and siren system. The pole-mounted system is computer-activated and includes nine, 400-watt speakers which broadcast with a one-mile radius.
In all, the county’s new siren system can be expanded to accommodate a total of 100 sirens as additional funding becomes available, Jones said.
