Economists call it making decisions on the margin.
It’s examining your resources, then weighing the costs versus the benefits and ultimately choosing what you feel is the best choice.
For those who prepare for disasters, it involves having to determine if the amount spent on a project is worth the additional lives that could be saved.
T.W. Cooper, director of the Greenwood-Leflore Emergency Management Agency, chokes up with emotion when talking about it.
“A lot of times we have to weigh the risk against the money that we have. That ain’t the easiest choice to make a lot of times,” he said.
Currently the county is weighing adding additional emergency sirens. On Monday the Board of Supervisors asked Bobby Norwood, a county employee who maintains the sirens, to investigate the need and bring back recommendations.
The county currently has 24 sirens — including four that have been newly installed since the New Year. They’re at Humphrey Highway, across from Lamb’s Photography, Chapman subdivision and the Phillipston Fire Station.
A grant paid for them. Cooper initially asked for 11 before having the list boiled down. Ideally, he said, he’d like to have 32 more, although he said he realizes it would be impractical to pay for that many.
He said funding is not currently available, but he’s preparing a pre-application so Leflore County will get the first shot when money is appropriated. Often it’s not until after a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina that funds are budgeted for emergency preparation, Cooper said.
Supervisor Preston Ratliff said the board should buy new sirens or rebuild old ones because some areas don’t have service at all.
“Us waiting for grants to go through is putting a lot of people at risk,” he said.
The county tests its sirens at noon on Wednesdays as long as the weather’s not bad.
The newer models — called 2001s and costing roughly $21,000 — can communicate two ways. Their functionality can be tracked from inside the Emergency Operations Center at the courthouse.
But with the older models — known as Thunderbolts, air raid sirens dating back to the 1960s — the only way to test and see whether they’re working is to listen.
County officials call nearby residents and ask if they heard the sirens. Records are maintained, but the results are skewed because it’s counted as a failure if no one answers the phone.
If a failure is registered, Norwood goes out and checks the siren. He said the No. 1 problem is squirrels and rodents building nests inside them, blocking the rotation and shorting out the electrical system.
The county is trying a new way to test the sirens. Video cameras with audio capability record constantly, allowing the county to look back to make sure the sirens are rotating and functioning properly.
Ratliff said he’s been to emergency management training elsewhere in the state and has seen sirens made up of stacks of speakers. They can also be used for announcements and are charged by solar panels, he said.
Norwood said the various systems are proprietary and that the speaker versions would not interface with those the county has now.
Hearing the sirens can pose a problem as well.
Cooper said people often don’t turn off their TVs or take off their headphones during a potential tornado, for example. Also, federal noise regulations keep the sirens from being sounded above a certain decibel level.
Supervisor Robert Collins said he lives two blocks from a siren at East School and has never heard it.
To remedy that problem, the county is considering a computerized system that would call, text or e-mail residents who sign up.
The board asked Norwood Monday to find out the price and return back.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
