County To Test Outdoor Warning Sirens After Sunday Malfunction

After warning sirens in some Washington County cities didn’t go off as planned on Sunday, officials will test the system at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25.

The county received some calls from residents after they knew about the storm warnings but did not hear the siren, according to a release from the county.

The tornado warning affected the northern portion of the county, so Woodbury’s alarms were not activated, said Chief Deputy Dan Starry. Sirens did go off in Oakdale. However they failed to go off in the rest of the affected cities, including Stillwater, Starry said.

At 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for northwestern Washington County. Three minutes later the Sheriff’s Office activated the outdoor warning sirens for the central and northern half of the county.

Yet multiple first responders reported that sirens had not activated in some cities. Dispatch staff again attempted to activate the warning sirens without success. Dispatchers tried a backup system, which also failed to set off the warning sirens.

While the NWS issued a second tornado warning at 3:10 p.m. on Sunday, county authorities were still trying to fix the problem. By the time the backup system worked, the severe weather had passed.

Washington County notified its vendor to determine the source and cause of the malfunction, according to the release. It was discovered that there was an equipment failure to the uninterruptible power supply at the county’s primary activation point where the signals are transmitted to the sirens, according to the release.

The equipment was back online at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

This equipment was tested during the monthly test on May 4 and the system was functioning properly. It is believed the malfunction occurred during the activation sequence since some of the sirens did sound, according to the release.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office and its vendor are working to determine the nature and cause of the equipment failure. Additional work is being completed to take steps to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office encouraged citizens to listen to media reports and emergency alert weather radios. For more information, refer to the state's website.

The monthly testing of the sirens will also occur on June 1 at the normal times.