A tornado touched down in Columbus. Why didn’t the outdoor sirens go off?

Ten tornadoes touched down June 18 across Georgia as the remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur moved through the state. Columbus Consolidated Government homeland security and emergency management director Chance Corbett confirmed to the Ledger-Enquirer one tornado hit Muscogee County during the storm.

Around 6:40 p.m., an EF-1 tornado with winds up to 90 mph touched down in Midland and traveled 4 and a half miles into Upatoi, the National Weather Service reported.

But as the tornado sped across the county, no outdoor siren went off.

Columbus resident Dennis Seldon posted June 19 on Facebook about the June 18 tornado in Upatoi. Seldon wrote that a weather siren “not even a good 500 feet from where trees were ripped down by the tornado as it came through” did not sound during the storm.

Corbett told the L-E a power outage to a public safety building prevented the outdoor siren communications from activating during the storm.

The operating system still triggered all other emergency warnings during the tornado, Corbett said, including smartphone alerts and emergency communications from the city.

“We tell everybody not to rely on the outdoor warning sirens,” Corbett said. “We tell everybody to have other means, and everybody that had a cellphone in that area still received a wireless emergency alert.”

The tornado downed trees and damaged a few roofs near Fulton Road, Jenkins Road and Bentley Drive, according to Corbett. He said no injuries related to the tornado have been reported.