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| Jennifer White recalibrates a Tone Alert Radio for Warning Systems Inc. Photo: Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star |
More than 7,000 Calhoun County residents have either declined to accept the radios or simply never returned calls from Warning Systems Inc., the state’s contractor for installing and repairing the tone alert radios, according to the company’s operations manager, Wade Griffin. The figure represents about 20 percent of all eligible households and businesses in the county, Griffin said.
Their reasoning is based on a mix of confidence in the incinerator, misconceptions about the radios and resignation over possible incidents, some residents and local officials say.
Sonny Nance lives less than two miles from the incinerator. He’s confident in operations there, but can’t understand why his neighbors might refuse an emergency radio.
"I figure it’s because they just don’t want to fool with it," Nance said.
Carolyn Huddleston, who lives down the road from Nance, tried to sum up what she sees as a prevailing attitude among some residents.
"If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen," she said.
Some residents simply don’t believe a chemical emergency is possible, said Calhoun County Commissioner Eli Henderson, a former employee at the chemical weapons stockpile. Henderson said he could understand the mindset, but considered it foolish to pass up the chance at a system designed to provide early warning in various emergencies, including tornadoes.
During the last four years, Warning Systems technicians have installed about 30,000 radios in Calhoun and about 4,000 in Talladega County, according to Griffin. In Calhoun, the radios have gone mostly to people living in the so-called Pink Zone, within six miles of the chemical limited area and the Immediate Response Zone, within six-to-nine miles. Radios have also gone to residents with special needs who live within 10-to-30 miles, an area known as the Protective Active Zone that encompasses parts of Calhoun, St. Clair, Etowah, Cleburne and Clay counties.
A 2003 state EMA decision extended eligibility to all homes and businesses within 11.4 miles of the chemical limited area – an addition of several thousand. Warning Systems technicians have been working to reach those properties within recent months. Anyone living in this area who has not been contacted, can call Warning Systems to request a radio. Consult an EMA map or call the EMA to see if their property falls within the area.
Tone Alert Radios (TARs) are the indoor part of the County Alert and Notification System. They are designed to awaken people and notify them, even over normal household noises. TARs emit a loud tone in conjunction with the Emergency Alert System, followed by voice information about a chemical emergency, a hazardous materials incident or a tornado. Unlike sirens throughout the area, TARs are not activated during a severe thunderstorm.
The $25 million tone alert radio system includes a central control system at the Anniston Army Depot’s Emergency Operations Center.