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Plano revamps outdoor warning siren system

The city of Plano admits there has been a lot of confusion over its outdoor warning siren system. But it has been recently revamped.

PLANO, Texas — The City of Plano has revamped its outdoor warning system after last year's storm season. Some changes have come as late as last week. 

Plano initially had sirens with voice messages like "Tornado Warning," but now all sirens will be a wailing tone. 

"People are going outside to try and listen to those messages, and this is exact opposite of what we want," said Steve Stoler with the City of Plano.

WFAA caught up with Mark Wester, who was outside watching his son train for spring baseball. Wester also happens to be a weather tracker and spotter. He says the voice messages from the sirens always sounded muffled.

"The voice is kinda confusing on it. When you do that, people are like 'Maybe they're saying something I need to hear,'" Wester said.

The city also says instead of sirens sounding off in different locations of the city, it will now be sounding off throughout the entire city. 

"People seem to forget that the outdoor warning sirens are meant for people outdoors, not for people indoors," Stoler said.

Stoler wants to stress that people stay indoors during severe weather and to avoid calling 9-1-1 unless it is an emergency. The city encourages people to sign up for CodeRED which robocalls citizens and lets them know the purpose of the siren.

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