Anyone remember/know the terror of Tornado sirens?

When I was a kid living in Lenexa Kansas, at the ends of the Earth. Back then (1974-1980), they would let the Tornadoes sirens rip and it was always at noon. I was in third grade at Rosehill Elementary school and at the first of the month it was like clock-work. We would pretend it was a GO SIGNAL and we were with the BA-BA Black Sheep Squadron, jump on our swings and be off on our Corsair's.
Besides that, I was scared to death of the sirens. I had one in our yard and it was the loudest noise I have ever heard except for my girlfriends shriek at anything I have done wrong.
Since those days, any loud noise sends my Blood Pressure out the roof and scares the you know what out of me.
I was wondering if anyone else has had problem with Alarm lock's or any kind ALERT and Damned near had the you know what scared out of them?

a reply to: Spader

Seriously? Ends of the earth?

I work in Lenexa, dude. It's pretty urban being a suburb of Kansas City.

And yes, there is a statewide siren test the first Wednesday or every month at noon, but it's not scary. It would be more scary if the sirens didn't work. We actually had a small twister go through our neighborhood about 1/4 mile south of our house and the sirens did NOT go off.

I was always the stupid kid looking out the window and not taking cover.
But I hate alarm clocks..lol

a reply to: Spader

Whenever my dog barks, it hurts my ears and makes me jump. I don't get used to it, so every bark after that has the same effect. I also get scared of loud bangs and pops in frequencies above 5k.

BA-BA Black Sheep

OMG!!!!!!!!!
You cant say that!!!!!
In uk schools children now have to sing "BA-BA Rainbow sheep"
Not kidding!

I lived in Alabama for 9 years. TONS of tornado sirens. Tons of tornados as well. Then when we moved up here (Philly area), every time the town fire whistle blew I'd be looking up at the sky expecting storm clouds. It took a few months for me to get used to fire whistles being for fires and not for tornados.

I live in a town where the sirens go off every day at noon, every car wreck, emergency and fire . . . . .yay!

a reply to: Spader

When I was a teenager my clock was not geared for waking up before 11. It was physically painful to get up. Had this one alarm clock that gave me anxiety when I heard the sound. Still hate that sound.

As far as tornado sirens are concerned it is very strange yours would go off everyday. What was the purpose I wonder?

Anyway, tornado sirens usually sound when it's too late to do anything, I've never understood the purpose in them. Maybe a way of saying "Ha! You're screwed asshole, try running...I dare ya!"

I used to live in country so far out that there were no sirens nearby. We found out there was a tornado once after a storm because our neighbor's roof was missing. Good times.

a reply to: Spader

I was in Nashville for 5 months and one just brushed us, those radio alert things went crazy I didn't hear a siren. But yeah, seeing a tornado 1/4 mile away wasn't fun and the weird thing is I grew up in NJ. The last 6 major tornados we've had in NJ, which are rare, all happened very close to where I was. For a while I thought nature was playing a sick joke on me.
Now the thing that gets me are when jets fly by. Most of the time no problem but sometimes they sound like missiles and the airports are in the NYC direction. I hope one day I don't look up and not see a jet making that sound!

originally posted by: AnteBellum
a reply to: Spader

I was in Nashville for 5 months and one just brushed us, those radio alert things went crazy I didn't hear a siren. But yeah, seeing a tornado 1/4 mile away wasn't fun and the weird thing is I grew up in NJ. The last 6 major tornados we've had in NJ, which are rare, all happened very close to where I was. For a while I thought nature was playing a sick joke on me.
Now the thing that gets me are when jets fly by. Most of the time no problem but sometimes they sound like missiles and the airports are in the NYC direction. I hope one day I don't look up and not see a jet making that sound!

I've lived in the countryside, and the air force use residential buildings for practise runs. Hearing that shrieking vroooooppppp as the jet flies directly overhead at low altitude. I can only imagine what an enemy would think when hearing that sound.

Our primary school had a general emergency alarm / evacuation siren - that was loud enough.

originally posted by: FlyersFan
I lived in Alabama for 9 years. TONS of tornado sirens. Tons of tornados as well. Then when we moved up here (Philly area), every time the town fire whistle blew I'd be looking up at the sky expecting storm clouds. It took a few months for me to get used to fire whistles being for fires and not for tornados.

What part? I live in AL and am all too familiar with the sirens. Every school and hospital has one. Here it is also the first wednesday of the month they are tested. We have bad problems with Tornados and hurricanes here. Several towns are wrecked on a yearly basis from one or the other. Tornado alley. But I'm the idiot that's outside trying to see the tornado lol

a reply to: ketsuko

I live 5 blocks from my town's fire station where the tornado siren is. Unlike the rest of the state that tests at noon on Wed., ours goes off EVERY night at 6 pm AND every time the fire trucks are called out.

We are so used to the siren around here that we all ignored it when an actually tornado touched down a mile away earlier this year!

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Spader

Seriously? Ends of the earth?

I work in Lenexa, dude. It's pretty urban being a suburb of Kansas City.

And yes, there is a statewide siren test the first Wednesday or every month at noon, but it's not scary. It would be more scary if the sirens didn't work. We actually had a small twister go through our neighborhood about 1/4 mile south of our house and the sirens did NOT go off.

It was the Ends of the Earth in 1975. The Oak Park Mall was just being Built. Good memories except for the tornado siren in the back yard. Lol.

The City I live In, Tests the Tornado sirens once a month. Ive seen some very scary Tornado producing weather in my area, The scariest is when the weather comes through in the early morning hours. Its dark, your half a sleep, and you have No idea if your in the path of the Tornado. Last year, a tornado ripped a small town apart, just 20 miles from my house, ive since been building a shelter, with a secondary exit point. I keep floor jacks in the shelter, in case something was to fall on both my exits

I grew up in Phoenix and when I was real young I remember them testing the sirens. I don't know if it was tornado sirens as tornadoes aren't common to the area. When I got a little older they didn't do it anymore. It's such a haunting sound. Up here in Seattle they use one when opponents kickoff during Seahawks games. Probably wouldn't go over well in Kansas.

a reply to: Spader

Mostly, out here the sirens fail to go off (don't even know why we have them; half the time, they go off after the worst part of the storm hits). In our case, the sirens were usually the first Saturday of the month.

There were a couple times though, where I actually did freak out because of the siren - The first was an atypical day, in that the sirens went off on a Friday evening; it was cloudy, so I thought maybe something was coming, but it looked like it was just a test. The second time though, I felt the storm before the siren went off - Looked out the window, and our area was bright and sunny. However, I almost thought there was a fire - A row of the blackest clouds I've seen, with huge bolts of lightning hitting behind the front was slowly coming in (think Independence Day spaceship). We weren't even in the worst of the storm - but the quarter-size hail, and possible tornado in the area made up for that.

Loud noises don't bother me, but silence does, especially when there should be some kind of noise.
-fossilera

a reply to: Josephus

I'm about 45, did anyone ever have "Duck and Cover" drills?
It only happened once to me in 1st grade. See a flash and get under your DESK? WTF? A desk Is going to save you from a 2 stage nuclear device? If you saw the flash you would most likely be blind and wouldn't know what to do. The government fooled us into thinking we could survive a first strike and live happily ever after. Amen.
Might have to move that to the RANT section. Heeeee