Longtime readers here know that I’m fascinated by tornado sirens. I’ve tracked down all of Muncie’s aging Thunderbolts, the Banshee on top of the old courthouse, and even some of the modern 2001-SRNs scattered around these parts. It’s rare that they actually become newsworthy, but the other day, they did! A little.
On Wednesday, just as I got home and sat down to work on this blog, my phone bellowed an alert: TORNADO WARNING. TAKE COVER NOW! No sooner had I soothed my screaming iPhone than I heard the 2001-SRN a few football fields from my house roar to life at 126 dB. I got the cat carriers out in case Disco, Zulu, and I had to shelter in the staircase, then headed to my balcony for a closer look and listen. None of that would normally be unusual here in Tornado Alley’s Hoosier outpost, but this time was different: I wasn’t sure the siren would actually sound at all.
Muncie’s system of tornado sirens came online sixty-eight years ago, when six of those Federal Signal Thunderbolts I mentioned were installed at Riley Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Franklin Middle School, Covalt Dairy, Broderick Company, and Ball Stores. They were first activated from the old police radio station on North Broadway Street1 at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, March 24, 19582. Since then, Delaware County’s network of outdoor warning sirens has grown to thirty-seven or so, some of which I presume began life as fire sirens in the outlying towns. Not all of them work even under the best circumstances, but after last week’s flooding, I was under the impression that none of the sirens could be counted on.
Here’s why: in 1991, officials in Muncie and Delaware County built a new dispatch tower just southeast of the intersection of West 18th Street and South Sampson Avenue3, near Muncie’s Thomas Park/Avondale neighborhood4. Its proximity to Buck Creek meant that the neighborhood’s southern edge was dramatically impacted by the hundred-year flood Muncie just experienced.
In the midst of the surging waters last Thursday, a local political podcaster breathlessly announced that he’d obtained information from the Muncie Police Department indicating that, after radio problems developed late that Wednesday and early Thursday, officials discovered the utility building at the base of the tower was underwater5. By 4:45 Thursday morning, the tone system used to page Fire and EMS was down with no estimated time for a fix6. On Saturday, the podcaster published the police shift report he’d received, along with emails he sent local officials asking for clarification7.
I do my best to keep this blog apolitical, and eager commentary along those lines -particularly in the middle of an unfolding emergency- isn’t where I normally look for reliable information. During a special meeting livestream where the county commissioners issued an emergency declaration, Delaware County 911 Director Fred Cummings directly addressed the podcast frenzy. Despite the damage to the tower site, he said, “I do want to assure the public the radio system is still working contrary to what went out on social media today- it’s just not working in an optimal capacity8.”
That distinction is important- Delaware County’s public-safety communications system hadn’t collapsed; the flooding just impaired it. Officials shifted as much of its load to another tower to the north9. Still, the extent of the problem became more clear on Saturday. That’s when the Delaware County Indiana Emergency Management Facebook page announced that “Delaware County’s public safety radio system is currently undergoing maintenance as a result of flood damage to the county’s main communications tower. While this work is ongoing, our ability to activate outdoor tornado warning sirens is diminished.10”
The stark difference between the entire system being down vs. merely being weakened caught my attention. As the days dragged on, I’m not sure any of us in Delaware County received so much as a fax, an AIM message, a paper airplane, or a carrier pigeon announcing that the siren system was back to normal! When my phone screamed at me Wednesday, I genuinely wondered what I was about to hear. Fortunately, the answer was sirens.
When what turned out to be a teeny EF-U tornado touched down near State Road 332 and County Road 600-West just three miles from my house11, the outdoor warning system was ready. I heard the SRN-2001 near my neighborhood, another at the Muncie Elks Golf Club, and, a little later, Ball State’s network of electronic WPS-4004s. I couldn’t pick out the throaty roar of the old Thunderbolt at the Suzanne Gresham Center nearby, but that one stopped rotating last October and it’s pointed away from my house.
The sirens worked Wednesday, but that doesn’t erase the legitimate concerns raised by the flood. Especially in the face of a disaster and the potential for a follow-up, questions about what happened at the communications tower, why critical equipment was vulnerable to flooding, how much redundancy exists when something like this happens, and how clearly the public should be informed when the outdoor warning system is impaired or restored are all fair. They don’t require turning the flood into a political football for clicks and likes.
They also shouldn’t obscure what went right. Muncie and Delaware County just endured a historic flood that closed roads, forced evacuations and water rescues, damaged infrastructure, and put emergency personnel under enormous strain. Tragically, it even led to the loss of two lives. Through it all, local government, dispatchers, Emergency Management, police, firefighters, EMS crews, highway workers, and countless others kept responding when flooded communications made an already miserable situation harder.
Delaware County kept functioning. From everything I saw, everyone’s response to the extraordinary disaster deserved a tremendous amount of credit. Once another threat arrived, this time from the air instead of the water, my phone screamed, the sirens spun into action, and people across the area sought shelter. Except for me, of course, out on the balcony.
I’m still curious about the tower. I’d like to know what failed, what’s been fixed, and what might be changed before the next flood. One County Commissioner suggested that the utility building below the tower be put on piers12, and that makes sense. Still, Wednesday provided the answer to the question I cared about most as I stood outside listening. The sirens still sounded.
Sources Cited
1 Sirens’ Wails Are Check on CD Warning (1958, March 24). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
2 Downtown Siren Last in CD Link (1958, March 17). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
3 Parcel 1121155017000 (2026). Office of the Assessor. Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved August 20, 2026.
4 Muncie GIS Resources Map for Neighborhoods (n.d.). Office of Information & GIS Services [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved August 20, 2026.
5 08.13.26: Tune in to The Political Spotlight tonight, Thursday, August 13, 2026… for The Political Spotlight to review the extraordinary weather (2026, August 13). The Political Spotlight [Facebook]. Status.
6 (See footnote 5).
7 08.15.26: TWO FULL DAYS WITH NO ANSWERS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO MUNCIE-DELAWARE COUNTY’S PUBLIC-SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS — WHY ARE OFFICIALS
8 Delaware County Commissioners Special Meeting – EMERGENCY DECLARATION August 13th, 2026 (2026, August 13). Delaware County Government [Muncie]. YouTube. Web. Retrieved August 20, 2026.
9 (See footnote 8).
10 Delaware County’s public safety radio system is currently undergoing maintenance as a result of flood damage to the county’s main (2026, August 15). Delaware County Indiana Emergency Management [Facebook]. Status.
11 NWS: Brief tornado touched down in Delaware County Wednesday evening (2026, August 20). WTHR [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved August 20, 2026.
12 (See footnote 8).
