April 8th-14th has been designated as Severe Weather Awareness Week in Michigan. With that in mind, as in years past, all residents are asked to take a moment to familiarize yourselves with the township's emergency siren procedure.
SUMPTER TOWNSHIP EMERGENCY SIREN PROCEDURE
Sumpter Township is equipped with fourteen emergency notification sirens strategically positioned throughout the township. In the event of an emergency that requires community notification through the use of the township siren system, the following procedure should be followed:
1. In the event of inclement weather (severe thunderstorm with possible severe damaging winds of 65mph+, large hail or tornado warning), the sirens will be activated. The community response to the activation should be to seek shelter on the lowest level (basement) of their dwelling or inside a nearby building if outside or in a mobile home.
2. If no basement is available, move into the interior area of the building with as few windows as possible and take cover. Residents inside mobile homes should move to an emergency site inside their park if the current conditions permit such a move.
3. If the siren system is activated and there is no apparent bad weather, residents are advised to tune into local TV and radio stations for possible public service announcements which may be related to a non-weather emergency condition (i.e. hazardous material spill, wildfire, Nuclear Power Plant condition etc).
4. Based on Sumpter Township’s location within Wayne County, the monitoring of neighboring counties (Washtenaw, Monroe and Lenawee) takes place in an effort to obtain as much advance severe weather condition information as possible.
Actual weather/emergency related siren activation cycles run steadily for 5 minutes. Please be advised, activation cycles may be repeated during an incident to ensure residents are alerted to the situation at hand.
There is no all clear signal. Please tune to local media outlets for information on when the threat is over.
*The siren system is tested on the first Friday of each month at 12:00 noon.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Wednesday, April 11th at 1:00 pm has been designated as a statewide tornado drill.
While other area communities might be activating their siren systems during this drill, SUMPTER TOWNSHIP WILL NOT BE ACTIVATING OUR SIRENS so as to not create confusion with residents who are unaware of the drill. We ask that you instead use the time to research and develop an emergency action plan for yourselves and your families.
