LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Three separate emergencies in the past month have prompted questions about what to expect in Louisville's emergency warning system.
Feb. 28: Sirens were silent when a tornado hit northeast Jefferson County.
March 21: After the Carbide Industries explosion, Metro Police mistakenly called for residents to take shelter.
March 23: Sirens sounded one hour after an ammonia leak in Butchertown.
"The bad part about the number of incidents occurring so quickly together is that it has a tendency sometimes I think to detract from your credibility," acknowledged MetroSafe Director Doug Hamilton, "The good news from them is that you learn a lot of things along the way."
Hamilton is in charge of an agency that has all the responsibility and none of the authority.
While a combination of equipment and human error at MetroSafe are blamed for the failure of tornado sirens to sound, the recent decisions on sounding warnings in Rubbertown and Butchertown belong to the incident commanders - the respective fire departments.
"Responders are in the category of - don't want to needlessly warn somebody unless I know they are in danger," Hamilton said, "and so they risk their lives actually to find out whether there is going to be risk to anyone else."
Yet, in the case of a chemical leak, by the time authorities finish assessing the risk, the chance to warn the community may have passed. And even when there is no danger, the public still wants to know -- something.
"And they have a need for critical information," Hamilton continued, "and we didn't meet that. We didn't meet that expectation. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to meet that expectation, but certainly we need to find better means in which to do that."
Hamilton says it means investing in a new warning system that uses new technology and social media, and the news media.
"We have to have somebody whose only focus is that," Hamilton said, "Hit you upside the head and go - 'you need to get this out to the media. Drop what you're doing. Give me some information. I need to push it.'"
Hamilton says emergency agencies don't want to fall into the trap of crying wolf so people don't pay attention when they need to.
For some perspective - in the first three months of this year, MetroSafe has logged more than 300 chemical or hazmat incidents.
