The head of the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency says there's a priority list of areas needing tornado sirens.
Agency director Roger Jolliff told city councilors one place on the list is the intersection of 51st Street and Garnett Road.
"While there's not a lot of residences, it's a high-usage area that people are out in the daytime, they're working, they're moving about," Jolliff said. "Again, this is an outdoor warning system, so we need to be conscious of people who are out and about."
Each siren covers about a square mile and costs $30,000. The other areas in need are Elwood Avenue and 45th Street, Elwood Avenue and 81st Street, and the Creek Turnpike and Highway 169.
About 3,400 citizens live in areas outside siren coverage.
"As we saw on March 25, you want this to work when game day comes," Jolliff said. "We actually sounded the sirens for one hour that day as the storm came from Sand Springs across the eastern part of the city."
The sirens have other uses, of course.
"They can be used for flood warning, if we have flooding where waters are leaving the stream beds and threatening structures, so for serious flooding," Jolliff said. "And the sirens have a tone for nuclear attack."
Northeast and northwest Tulsa also have areas not covered by city-owned sirens.
