Scott County blames human error for tornado sirens sounding on Saturday

SCOTT COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ)- Scott County officials say human error is to blame for their sirens sounding off when there wasn’t a tornado warning for the area.
The Scott County Emergency Management Agency says the tornado siren sounded for about one minute Saturday when they say a storm watcher spotted a suspicious cloud in the area.

Merril Creech says he and his family were at home in Georgetown Saturday night when he heard the tornado siren go off.

“I was just wondering if it was a test or what it was because the sky didn’t look too bad,” said Creech.

Scott County officials say they chose to sound the siren for around one minute after a storm watcher reported a suspicious cloud over the Canewood Subdivision.

“We did have a low hanging shelf cloud that did have rotation. Once we got that notification of rotation we did activate the sirens,” said Cap. Rick Palmer with Scott County EMA.

Officials say when they realized there was no longer a threat they shut the siren off.

“We kind of looked at radar. There was no issue with that so the sirens we did deactivate them,” said Cap. Palmer.

The agency says they turn the sirens on whenever there is a tornado warning from the national weather service or if one of their certified spotters calls in.

“And we will yield on the side of caution. You know our job is to protect the community within Georgetown, Scott County so sometimes we are going to yield on the side of caution,” said Cap. Palmer.

And while hearing the sirens going off can be unsettling, Creech says he agrees with officials that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

“I mean yeah it’s a good idea just for the simple fact that it gives people a heads up. It’s not right on top of us before they let them off and then it’s too late,” said Creech.

Scott County officials say they will be getting an update software in the next few months that will allow them to turn on sirens in just the section of the county affected by severe weather instead of having to sound all of the sirens in the entire county.