Emergency Sirens in Lake County False Alarm; Residents Scared

LAKE COUNTY, Ohio — Emergency sirens sounded Tuesday afternoon in all of Lake County and parts of Ashtabula and Geauga Counties near the Perry Nuclear Power Plant.

“It sounded like a really loud siren. I thought something was wrong,” said Courtney Kidd.

“I actually thought it was a tornado waning. I was about to make cover,” said Antonio Kidd.

“I look over and I see those sirens and I thought there was going to be a tornado,” said Kyle Szwejbka.

It was not a test, nor was it an actual emergency.

“At this point in time we just want to assure the public there’s no problem,” said Larry Greene, director of the Lake County Emergency Management Agency.

Greene said  the 104 sirens were wailing for three minutes just after 5:30 p.m.

Why?

They are trying to figure that out.

“Technicians are currently, as we speak, doing a diagnostic check of the siren system to figure out what happened, so it hopefully won’t happen again,” Greene said.

Deputies said the Lake County Emergency Operations Center took a direct hit from lightning Tuesday afternoon. They are not sure if this has anything to do with the sirens going off, but they are looking into it.

“We want to get to the bottom of it and, once again I want to apologize if we caused any undue disturbance,” Greene said.

“I guess it’s better that they are working than they’re not working,” said Mary Beth Szwejbka of Painesville.