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sirens remain so ubiquitous that one official says the pole they sit on could almost be called the state tree of Kansas.
• Many who live where tornadoes are most common rely on storm sirens -- despite the risk of mechanical problems, damage from the same storms that trigger the sirens and the oft-repeated warning that people should not expect to hear the wailing tone inside well-insulated, modern homes.
• Even as emergency management officials and meteorologists also urge the use of weather radios and subscriptions to phone

weather alerts, sirens remain an important part of communities' warning systems. So much so that some cities and counties are considering upgrades.
• Work started this past week on a roughly $200,000 project in Joplin that involves upgrading, replacing and adding tornado sirens. It comes about a year after a deadly storm killed 161 people in the southwestern Missouri community. Elsewhere, officials in Cole County, which includes the Missouri Capitol, are considering whether to place sirens in rural areas outside Jefferson City.
• In Kansas, Sedgwick County is completing an upgrade that will allow sirens to be triggered individually. That project was originally expected to cost about $1.25 million but now is expected to be completed for around $900,000.
• Andy Bailey, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Mo., said too many people fail to realize the warning sirens are not aimed at people who are inside or asleep. But he said sirens still have a role in protecting communities.
• "I don't think there's anything wrong with a community maintaining and improving

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