Most people don’t think twice about tornado sirens unless it’s noon on a Friday or if a supercell’s headed their way. For better or worse, I’m not one of those people: I obsess about overlooked infrastructure! I just can’t help noticing it, and sirens are some of my favorites. One of them in Hancock County is hard to miss- it’s loud, sure, but it’s also painted bright green!
Green Township is one of Hancock County’s most rural places. Home to the unincorporated communities of Eden and Milner’s Corner, only about 1,600 people are spread across the area. If you’ve ever missed your turn onto I-70 north of Greenfield and found yourself surrounded by cornfields with no idea how you got there, you’ve probably been in Green Township.
Despite being hit by three tornadoes over the years, Green Township never had an outdoor warning siren. The nearest one was a full ten miles away1! For years, residents had to rely on the old-fashioned signs of trouble like dark skies, shifting winds, and gut instinct. That risk didn’t sit right with Katie Floyd, so she decided to do something about it.
Floyd knew of the destruction a tornado could bring, not because one had personally impacted her, but because her dad had gone to help clear damage in the Monroe County community of Henryville after a tornado struck in 2012. A high-school Girl Scout, she spent two years raising funds and applying for grants to install a siren in her community2.
By 2015, Floyd had raised $11,000 and made contact with Federal Signal, the company behind legendary sirens like the Model 2, the Thunderbolt-1000, the STH-10, the 3T22, and, nowadays, the 2001-SRN. Federal Signal agreed to help reach the remainder of Floyd’s fundraising goal3, and, ta-da! Green Township had itself a siren.
Green Township’s tornado siren stands tall behind the community fire station just a stone’s throw south of Eden Elementary School. Painted in unmistakable Girl Scout green, complete with the organization’s logo splashed proudly across the front4, the siren is unlike any I’ve seen.
Still, it’s a regular model 2001-130 that packs a serious punch: Green Township’s siren blasts out 130 decibels at 100 feet5! It’s loud enough to cut through wind, rain, and engine noise for up to two miles in every direction. That’s not enough to cover the whole township, but it’s a start.
It’s not every day that a piece of emergency infrastructure doubles as a symbol of community spirit, but that’s exactly what Green Township’s siren has become. Thanks to one determined Girl Scout and a lot of small-town grit, a quiet corner of Hancock County now has a voice loud enough to shout above the storm. I’ll have to visit next time it’s testing in full attack mode!
Sources Cited
1 Girl Scout gets tornado siren for Hancock County (2015, April 29). WTHR [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved June 21, 2025.
2 VanOverberghe, C. (2015, April 16). Sounding the alarm. The Greenfield Daily Reporter. Pp. 1, 3.
3 (See footnote 2).
4 (See footnote 2).
5 2001-130, Equinox High Power Directional Rotating Siren (n.d.). Federal Signal [Illinois]. Web. Retrieved June 21, 2025.
6 Kennedy, L. (2015, April 28). Girl Scout raises money for first tornado siren in Green Township. WISHTV [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved June 21, 2025.
