VIDEO: On Monday night, tornado sirens in the northwest parts of Douglas County activatedโbut there wasn’t a tornado. Now, officials are explaining what went wrong with their new system. At the beginning of 2025, the Douglas County Emergency Management Agency started using a new siren technology system. This system will automatically activate sirens in a specific area in the county where winds are 80 miles per hour or more, or storms produce hail larger than 2.75 inches.
On Monday night, neither of those threats were the case, yet sirens still sounded. The county says the company contracted to program the auto-activation system, American Signal, made a programming error caused by a typo when entering data into the system. “It was essentially, you know, human error on the front end and it’s been repaired and we’re just glad they work. We’re glad the automated system works,” said Mike Friend, Douglas County commissioner for district 7.
