Silent tornado siren near Fort Gibson lake

Last week, severe storms threatened parts of Wagoner County. Some residents near Fort Gibson Lake are concerned their sirens were never sounded. <br><br>The News on 6's Rick Wells went to Whitehorn

Tuesday, April 27th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Last week, severe storms threatened parts of Wagoner County. Some residents near Fort Gibson Lake are concerned their sirens were never sounded.

The News on 6's Rick Wells went to Whitehorn Cove, on the lake to find out why not.

Remember last Thursday's tornado near Mazie, the funnel cloud was one of several that day. One was headed to Wagoner and the lake from Coweta. There was another one near Haskell.

Nomie McMahan spent some time in her shelter. â€œThe time it was coming from Mazie and up from Haskell I think we had 8 adults, one baby and three dogs in there.â€ There was room for more she says. Folks were coming from all over, they were scared. "There is no shelters out here per-se for the community.â€

She was watching the News on 6 and listening to her weather radio so she had adequate information but there is a tornado siren about three blocks from her house and it was never sounded, she doesn't know why.

"My concern is for the people in the mobile homes that don't have their own storm cellars." Those folks she says need as much warning as they can get in order to give them time to find safe shelter.

Here's what we found out. The Wagoner County Civil Defense Director told me by telephone he was in Wagoner watching those storms as they began to die out he chose not to sound the Whitehorn Cove alarm. The siren is activated by a special telephone code; he didn't want to un-necessarily alarm the residents.

McMahan: "If they went off ten false times out of 20, if we got the one that was important." She says back here in the woods you can't see the storms coming, they need advanced warning and a few false alarms would be worth it.