Shawano County tests emergency sirens

SHAWANO COUNTY -- MYFOXWAUSAU - Shawano County emergency sirens are back up and working properly after malfunctioning last week.

You'll remember severe weather ripped through Wittenberg and many residents reported not hearing the sirens.

Thankfully, there were no injuries, but Village leaders recognize the need to ensure the sirens don't fail again.

A county wide test confirms Wittenberg's emergency siren is back working the way it should. At noon sharp, the Shawano County dispatch center activated all 13 emergency sirens, but last week when the same sirens were activated several didn't go off leaving residents with no warning that severe weather was well on its way.

Wittenberg resident Rob Kubiaczyk says, "The storm came through fairly quickly and we never got any warning from the sirens or nothing which you would expect in a big storm like that they should've gone off."

Shawano County's Emergency Management Director Steven Haskell says a malfunctioning generator is to blame.

Haskell says, "The battery system for the Wittenberg siren was not working and the Village of Wittenberg Fire Department had to get that repaired."

Every spring there is a statewide emergency siren test other than that its up to each individual community to test their siren on their own schedule.

Haskell says, "Communities like Wittenberg do their test once a year. It varies on what the communities desire to do and how they desire to do the drills because they own the sirens, they maintain the sirens."

Village leaders say now they'll go back to weekly siren tests to ensure next time storms roll through Wittenberg residents like Rob Kubiaczyk get fair warning.

Kubiaczyk says, "We're pretty lucky as a community, that nobody got hurt, a lot of trees went down all over the community but nobody sustained any damage to their homes, we were lucky."

Wittenberg leaders are working on scheduling the siren to go off every Wednesday at noon.