Amid the stirrings of yesterday morning's tsunami warning prompted by an offshore earthquake, San Franciscans found their cell phones receiving alert notifications of the looming threat. However, the city's traditional loud sirens, once a weekly fixture every Tuesday, remained silent. This absence, marking five years since the silence began, left many pondering the fate of the emergency warning system, which has been inoperable despite earlier plans for repair.
As per SFGATE, the quake's epicenter near Humboldt County led the National Weather Service to issue the tsunami warning, subsequently invoking responses from BART and the local city officials to urge residents to move away from coastal areas. Yet, with the emergency siren system decommissioned in 2019 due to a need for hardware and security upgrades, a concern has risen about the city's readiness to handle such emergencies. Despite proposed legislation introducing funding of $5 million for repairs, the system remained in a quagmire of budgetary and bureaucratic delays, with Supervisor Aaron Peskin lamenting the lack of action, "Mayor Breed refused to fund it in her budget," he told SFGATE.
The vacuum left by the inoperative siren system forced the city to resort to alternative alert systems. As the Department of Emergency Management detailed, social media, traditional media, and the AlertSF text messaging service were the primary vehicles for circulating the tsunami warning, complemented by first responders utilizing vehicle-mounted public address systems to inform citizens, as stated by SFGATE.
The broader context of the siren system's obsolescence was examined by the San Francisco Chronicle, where officials from past to incoming administrations weighed in on the situation. Supervisor Peskin criticized Mayor London Breed for not prioritizing the system's refurbishment, a stance countered by Breed's spokesperson, Jeff Cretan, who argued that the outdated system required more than just repairs; it needed a complete overhaul. With an estimated cost upwards of $20 million, the siren replacement initiative now falls on the shoulders of Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie. Cretan pointed out that "the landscape has changed since 1946 when these things were built for air raids. Everybody has a phone," signaling a transition towards considering modern alternatives that align with contemporary San Francisco's needs.
