Residents near the West Cobb Aquatic Center reported hearing disturbing sounds from a tornado siren late Saturday night into Sunday morning on June 12-13 - even with no severe weather in the area.
Cobb Emergency Management requested that Cobb EMC turn off power to the siren, but that operation took several hours, according to a Cobb County statement on June 15.
After Cobb Emergency Management tested the system, a low battery was found to be the reason the siren on Macland Road made loud thumping noises, the statement added.
While the system silently tests each siren every day, when the low battery prevented the test, it resulted in the irritating noises emanating from the siren, which continued as the system attempted to complete the silent test.
Normally, these issues are discovered during the monthly test of the sirens.
However, those tests were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To run a complete system diagnostic and to prevent a recurrence of this situation, the monthly siren tests will resume in July, the statement added.
Cobb officials “apologized for the noise and any disruption to the neighborhoods nearby.”
Information: CobbCounty.org/news
