False Alarm: Computer glitch sets off tornado sirens in Osage County

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Last night residents in Osage County were woken up by tornado sirens.

Working for you, 27 News contacted Osage County Emergency Management Director Greg McCurdy to find out what caused the false alarm around midnight. According to McCurdy, a computer glitch caused sirens to blare across the entire county.

McCurdy said the issue was caused when dispatchers attempted to page out for a medical call. Dispatchers can page multiple departments at once, a technique called 'stacking tones'.

"Each of the first responders have a preset tone, when they go off they know its their call," McCurdy said.

According to McCurdy, when dispatchers sent out the medical call, it also triggered the tornado sirens. He said the county had just performed a siren test earlier in the day and had calls for medical and fire, but those didn't set off the sirens.

"Apparently, it was all of them in the county," McCurdy said.

McCurdy says if something like this happens, and there haven't been any warnings or alerts from the National Weather Service, you can check with your local police department or county dispatchers to see if it's a credible alarm.

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