Don't worry about those warning sirens

Polk County is conducting its routine seasonal maintenance on the civil-defense sirens in the Des Moines area, since we're not expecting any severe weather around here this week, and severe-weather season is just around the corner. On a related note, several Central Iowa counties are working together to solicit bids for an automatic emergency-notification system that would use phones, e-mail, fax, and other means to contact local residents in case of emergency. We, of course, already have the Emergency Alert System for broadcasters to use to relay alerts. WHO Radio gets the distinction of originating most of the alerts in Iowa.