LUBBOCK, Texas -
Wednesday marks the 46th anniversary of the F5 tornado that ripped through the heart of downtown Lubbock.
The tornado killed 26 people, injured about 1,500 and left hundreds more homeless. It's a sobering reminder every year about the potential dangers posed by severe weather in our region.
Now, all these years later, the city does not have a tornado siren system to warn residents of impending danger. The debate always comes up this time of the year.
City Councilwoman Karen Gibson lived through the May 11, 1970 tornado. In 2013, she and Mayor Glen Robertson set up a task force to look into warning systems.
Justin Weaver was part of that task force. He's the meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service office in Lubbock.
"We recommended a multi-layered approach to protect the citizens from severe weather," Weaver said. That approach included sirens.
"It was voted down," Gibson said. "I voted to put it on the ballot, but the council did not vote that."
The main issue for council was the high cost. "Some people say it's 2 million, some people say it's 10," Gibson said. She says council felt they couldn't justify spending that money.
"What are all the avenues available and is that the most prudent way to spend the funds available, when you've got all the other systems, the cell phone systems, obviously TV," Gibson said.
But Weaver has a warning about where you get your warnings.
"Cell phones are going to go down. They're going to be too congested to function properly or the infrastructure will be destroyed. Same with the power," Weaver said. "So it's the old technology that tends to work in disasters, not the new technology."
Another issue is whether the sirens can be heard indoors.
"I think the idea that they can't be heard inside is a myth," Weaver said. "I interviewed over 100 people in Joplin after the tornado disaster there in 2011 and not one person indicated they couldn't hear those sirens inside."
Just a few miles outside Lubbock, the city of Wolfforth has four tornado sirens.
"Any extra layers of protection that we can add to our capabilities is going to be beneficial in my book," said Randy Cisneros, Wolfforth's Emergency Management Coordinator.
Wolfforth's system actually failed during a storm in 2012. Cisneros says the likely culprit was outdated technology: old phones lines used to activate the sirens.
"We've made upgrades so that we wouldn't have to rely on that, so now everything that we have to remotely activate the sites is new technology," Cisneros said.
The city has also added a new siren since then, greatly expanding the coverage area, but it comes at a cost.
"I think it was in the 25 to 30 thousand dollar price range for just that one site," Cisneros said.
Multiply that by several sites across Lubbock, if the city were to implement a siren system from scratch, and the price tag adds up quickly. That will be something the new mayor and council will likely have to consider.
"It all comes back to the money," Gibson said. "It always comes back to the money."
Weaver says the extra layer of protection is worth the high cost.
"I hope that the new mayor and the new city council will look at our recommendations from 2013 and either implement what we recommended, or at least put that decision up to the voters that will have to pay for it," Weaver said.
