Flood warning sirens - soon to be a thing of the past?
Some of you (hopefully all of you!) will of heard the flood warning sirens being tested today and just as hopefully realised that it was a test and not the real thing!
(I could add a swipe about realising that it's not the Russians coming either, but I suppose that wouldn't be very PC would it?).
Just to drift off of the point for a moment (as I like to do). The Station used the same system for call outs when I was based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire and the things would normally go off anytime between 2 and 4 o'clock in the morning, which was just great when you had a young baby that you had just gotten off to sleep! Anyway, some times my dear old mum would come and stay with us and having lived through the whole of the London Blitz, the sounding of these sirens was guaranteed to wake her up in a complete panic, even nearly 30 years later! 
I hope they don't have the same effect on anybody in South Holland!
So back to the matter in hand. Having had some brief discussions with our officers about the system, it would appear that, as well as being very expensive to maintain, the system is now far less effective than it used to be. This is partly due to the increasing spread and extent of development and possibly also due to the increasing levels of everyday noise we all seem to have to put up with even a rural area such as ours.
At some point there is going to be a public consultation (we just love those things in local government don't we!) and then somebody will do what they were going to do anyway! Sorry, that's the cynic in me showing its ugly face again. Although we are very confident about flood management and flood monitoring in our area we must never be complacent and reliable warning system will always be needed just in case. At this moment in time, I don't know what the alternative is going to be, but I hope people take an interest when the time comes and let us know what they feel they need in order to feel safe in their own homes.
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My wife however was up at Springfields (right next to the flood defence by the way) and didn't hear a thing. I guess the wind was in my direction not hers.
And that is the problem. As you say, other noises get in the way and a lot of people now live a lot further away from the centre of town where the siren is than before.
Now there are text and phone services etc. A number of police forces use these now and the Enviroment Agency also uses text and phone services to warn about flood BUT you need the user to register with the service first. More people don't register than do (ask the EA how many people in Spalding are on their text list) so the only way to make sure EVERYBODY knows there is a problem is a siren but one siren in the middle of town is not enough and there you have the problem.
If one siren costs too much, several around town will cost even more.
For now, text and phone services are not the answer but they do cost peanuts so cost over safety?
The best way to get people to ignore a warning is to make it regularly when nothing is wrong - 'crying wolf'. Then they won't be concerned when the damn noise is stopped for good, because it never did any good.
Perfect way to destroy a valuable tool.
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