By VIVIAN KING DIXON

Staff Writer

vivian@griffindailynews.com

ZEBULON - The sirens, announcing “this is a test and only a test,” go off every Wednesday and Saturday in Pike County. But what happens when it’s the real deal - when a tornado has been spotted?

For the county’s 17,000 residents, it’s a siren with no substance. There’s no functioning plan.

The problem, County Manager Steve Marro said, is that with the combination of the fire department, Emergency Management Agency (EMA) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS), there was not enough emphasis put on EMA.

Last month, Mike Singleton was hired as EMA director. But, for the county, it’s going to be a matter of catch-up.

There are currently three emergency sirens in the county. Two are in Zebulon and a third is in Concord. But there are none in Williamson, Molena and Meansville.

“They were just never put in the outlying remote areas,” Marro said.

In addition, the county has been able to locate only one emergency weather radio and it doesn’t work, while the 10 county locations that are listed as emergency shelters either no longer exist or are not properly equipped.

In several instances, officials at the agencies housed in the designated emergency shelters were not even aware that their facilities are shelters.

“Homeland defense is giving away all kinds of money through grants to do all this stuff and we are missing the boat,” Marro said last week.

Singleton and Marro are now in the process of taking a first step in the right direction - the creation of a pre-disaster mitigation plan.

“If we had a tornado right now and I brought in every contractor in Pike County who had a loader and a chipper and a truck, I would then have to get my pre-disaster mitigation plan approved through FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), which could take up to two years, and then FEMA would reimburse these costs,” Marro said, acknowledging that if a plan was already in place, the billing and reimbursement would be immediate and not put unnecessary strain on the county’s budget.

The county is also in the process of applying for funds for radios and additional sirens as well as creating an emergency operation plan.