They hope to have all 101 sirens online by spring of 2026.
KIMMSWICK, Mo. — Until now, residents in unincorporated Jefferson County had no outdoor warning sirens when severe weather hit.
The Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency said the county is spending more than $2 million to bring outdoor severe weather warning sirens to growing parts of Jefferson County.
“We wanted to start bringing this service to our unincorporated areas as well because over the years we’ve seen more and more large neighborhoods moving outside of this municipal boundaries and so we have more people potentially in harm’s way out there,” Jefferson County EMA Director Warren Robinson said.
Meteorologist Mark Britt with the National Weather Service said these warning sirens are primarily to save the lives of people outside and can sound off for more than just tornadoes.
“Those sirens are very important if there’s any type of hazardous weather approaching their area, especially if we issue a tornado warning or if there are very strong destructive winds or a very large hail storm that is a approaching their location,” Britt said.
The first of 101 warning sirens to go up in Jefferson County is in the historic city of Kimmswick where they have a high tourist population.