06/01/2026
Early Monday morning, our county faced some severe weather, including a Tornado Warning for the northwest part of the county and a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for everywhere else. We’ve seen a lot of great questions, discussions, and some understandable frustrations on social media over the course of the day regarding emergency alerts and sirens. We believe in transparency, so we want to break down exactly how these systems work and why decisions are made.
As you know, we switched our emergency alert provider from CodeRED to Genasys back in October 2025. We made this change because we noticed a steady decrease in CodeRED’s overall capabilities. In line with county policy, we sought competitive bids, and recommended Genasys as the best tool for the job, and the Allen County Commissioners approved their bid.
We’ve had reports from some residents who didn't receive an alert on Monday morning. Here is what we found when we looked into it:
Not Registered: Some of the people who missed the alert simply haven't signed up for the new Genasys system yet.
Outdated Information: Some accounts had inaccurate or incomplete address information, which caused the system to skip them.
System Glitch: A very small minority of residents were properly registered but still didn't get the alert. We are actively investigating these specific cases with Genasys support to find out why.
Phone Calls vs. Text Messages
When our account was initially set up with Genasys, the default was that a phone and a text message would be sent for a tornado warning, but only a text message would be sent for a severe thunderstorm warning. It was unknown to us that this was the default setup. After hearing feedback from our residents, we have changed this so that severe thunderstorm warnings will generate a phone call. That change is now live and all future tornado warnings AND severe thunderstorm warnings should generate a phone call.
How Warnings Work
We’ve seen some criticism regarding how warnings are issued, with people worried that a storm could easily change paths and hit an area not under a warning. It helps to understand exactly how the National Weather Service operates. The NWS uses polygons; precise, storm-centered shapes drawn on a map that track exactly where the storm is heading. When a tornado warning is issued, Genasys looks at that specific polygon and only sends alerts to registered residents whose physical addresses fall inside those lines. Because these lines are drawn based on storm physics, a polygon can literally split a town right down the middle. The north half of a town might be in the warning, while the south half is excluded. We hear the concern: "What if the storm changes direction and hits the south half?"
Rest assured, NWS meteorologists don't draw tight, rigid lines right against the funnel. They intentionally build a protective buffer into the polygon to account for sudden shifts, wobbles, or expansions of the storm. If you are just outside the line, science and data show you are currently out of harm's way... but you should always keep an eye on the sky.
Why Didn't The Sirens Go Off?
Another common question from Monday morning was why the outdoor warning sirens remained silent.
Our outdoor warning sirens are only activated if a threat is moving toward an area covered by a siren. Monday's Tornado Warning was strictly over rural, northwest Allen County. The closest sirens are located in Carlyle and Iola, but because the warning polygon did not cover those communities, those sirens were not set off.
We try to avoid "over-warning" communities that aren't in danger. If sirens go off every time there is a warning 15 miles away, people stop taking them seriously when the danger is actually on their doorstep.
We had personnel on hand watching the storm, coordinating with the National Weather Service, monitoring conditions in surrounding counties upstream in the storm, and taking storm observation reports from our local field responders. If warranted, the outdoor warning sirens would have been activated IF it met the criteria set forth in the county's severe weather policies and procedures.
What To Do Next
If you didn’t get an alert, or if you want to double-check your account, please make sure you are registered with Genasys and that your current physical address is correct.
If you have questions, comments, or specific concerns about Monday's events, please reach out to us! You can:
Send a direct message right here to our page.
Send an email to [email protected]
Call us at 620-365-1477 during normal business hours. If there is no answer, please leave a message with your name and phone number.
Register for Genasys if you haven't already at https://allencountyks.genasys.com/portal/en/register
Thank you for helping us keep Allen County safe and informed!
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