Village Hall: Power Outage Delayed Siren Activation

A power outage struck Village Hall as a severe thunderstorm roared through town at 8 a.m. Monday, causing a 15-minute delay in the activation of the village's storm sirens.

As the sirens were being activated at about 8 a.m. in accordance with new guidelines adopted following the June 21 tornado, "there was a fluctuation in the power supply at the police department" causing the system to shift back and forth between standard and back-up electrical systems, said Doug Kozlowski, village communications director.

"The fluctuation resulted in a delay just as the sirens were due to be activated," he said. "We made the decision to activate the sirens and that's where things went wrong. Multiple times, the system went back and forth between the standard and back-up power supply."

Kozlowski said the village is "investigating where in the equipment chain that went wrong." 

The sirens sounded at 8:15 a.m. as the violent storm, which downed trees and power lines, was clearing the area. The village had previously been criticized for not sounding its storm sirens during the June 21 weather event, which was later determined to have included a tornado.

Following that storm, village officials revised the storm siren policy to allow for activation if a severe storm is threatening the area within five miles of Downers Grove.