What caused erroneous tornado sirens in Madisonville Thursday?

MONROE COUNTY, Tenn. ( WATE ) — The Monroe County’s Emergency Services agency is working to fix an error that may have caused those in Madisonville to have heard tornado sirens Thursday night, although there was not a Tornado Warning in the area.

Thursday, around 8:45 p.m., Monroe County Emergency Services posted on Facebook that there had been a Tornado Warning alert for Tellico Plains effective until 9:15 p.m. When the sirens in Tellico Plains were activated through, the alarm frequency also caused Madisonville’s alarms to sound as well.

Friday morning, on the other hand, the agency revealed that there had not been a Tornado Warning for the area. Instead, the Tellico Plains Chief of Police, and many others received a text alert of a Tornado Warning for their area.

“Because the safety of the citizens in his town and the safety of all the citizens that we serve is the number one priority for us both, the decision was made to sound the sirens,” the post from Monroe County Emergency Services reads.

But the warning was actually for Murphy, North Carolina , which is about 40 miles away. The emergency services agency reported that because the town closely neighbors Monroe County, several people in the county received the warning for part of North Carolina.

“I do apologize for any confusion that this caused. There is always more to the story when things like this happen and we like for all our citizens to always be completely aware of the consequences that sometimes happen during events like those that occurred during the bad weather last night,” the post by Monroe County Emergency Services read.

The agency added that finding and fixing what caused the signal crossover and Madisonville’s sirens to sound is a top priority.

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