When storm sirens unexpectedly began to sound Monday night, Franklin residents assumed the worst: aliens, a zombie apocalypse, an air raid or the end of the world.
But there was no cause for alarm, as there was no actual threat when the sirens went off Monday.
Storm sirens across the city unexpectedly began going off around 10:00 p.m. There were no severe weather warnings issued, and no storms were in the area at the time of the activation, according to the National Weather Service.
Routine testing of the warning sirens happens at 11 a.m. on Fridays, when there is no severe weather in the area.
Almost immediately after the sirens began going off, Franklin-area residents took to community Facebook groups asking what was going on.
“Sirens going on and off?” one man posted. “What in the world is going on with sirens?” a woman posted. “Anybody know why the emergency sirens just went off at 10 p.m.?” another man posted.
Residents speculated on why the sirens were activated, often humorously. In addition to the apocalypse, residents thought it was a sign of a Ray’s Trash Truck passing by, the grand reopening of the Taco Bell on U.S. 31 and a Chick-Fil-A opening in the city.
Residents also commented on the Daily Journal’s Facebook page about the activation.
“… We were worried so I called the police. Dogs (are) going crazy over here,” one woman wrote.
At 10:23 p.m. Monday, the Johnson County 911 Dispatch Center posted on Facebook saying that officials were made aware that sirens in Franklin were going off and that they were investigating the cause.
“We are currently investigating the cause of this. There are no current weather warnings that would require siren activation,” the post said.
Johnson County 911 director Heath Brant told the Daily Journal Tuesday that the 911 center did not activate the sirens in the city, as the sirens are owned and operated by the city of Franklin. Johnson County does not own and operate any sirens.
The city’s information technology department is responsible for running the software that activates the sirens for the city, and on Monday morning, no one knew why it happened, said Matt Culp, Franklin fire chief.
“To be honest, I have no clue why it happened,” Culp said.
There were several quirks about Monday night’s activation, Culp said. The sirens are supposed to go off in a three-minute cycle before shutting down and starting again, but according to first-hand accounts from his fire crews, the sirens went off continuously for 10 minutes, he said.
“Fortunately, they’re not going off now,” Culp said.
He said another quirk about Monday’s activation was that only the city’s storm sirens went off. All of the county’s sirens are interconnected, meaning all of the sirens should be going off across the county at the same time, not just those located within a certain area, he said.
By Monday afternoon though, the cause was believed to have been pinned down to radio interference. The outdoor sirens are activated via two-way radio, and evidently, some radio traffic on the same frequency caused the sirens to activate, said Rick Littleton, the city’s information technology director.
“If everything was working properly, that should not happen,” Littleton said.
A fix for the issue is coming. For the last several months, the city has been working on a project to update equipment, including soundboards and the two-way radios, to prevent situations like what happened on Monday from happening. However, due to supply chain issues, the upgrades have not yet been completed, he said.
Littleton is working with the vendor and manufacturer of the equipment to get an update on the delivery time. The last update city officials received said the equipment would be delivered by the end of September, Littleton said.
“We hope to have those soon and get them replaced and that should get (the issues) resolved,” he said.
