Keeping Muncie’s Thunderbolts thunderbolting

Tornado sirens…can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em, amiright? Seriously, though, we clinch our teeth through tests that interrupt our Friday mornings, but rely on them when severe weather strikes. Most of what we hear every week are modern Federal Signal 2001-SRNs, but yesterday, Delaware County Emergency Management issued an update to its testing policy that I hope will keep our historic holdouts fit for years to come.

A Thunderbolt siren in Muncie. Photo taken March 19, 2023. Older electromechanical sirens in use as fire alarms came earlier, but Muncie received its first civil defense sirens in 19581. That March, six supercharged Federal Signal Thunderbolts sounded off at 127dB in their first test2! Believe it or not, Muncie’s still home to three old Thunderbolts, at the old Riley Elementary School, the old Morrison-Mock Elementary School (now the Suzanne Gresham Center), and the present South View Elementary. In addition, downtown features an old-school Banshee 110 manufactured by Alerting Communicators of America that was probably installed around 19743.

A Federal Signal 2001-SRN. Photo taken December 12, 2025. Some of the county’s outlying towns have vintage sirens of their own, like Federal Signal Model 2s or STH-10s, but I’m not sure they still sound. Today, two-thirds of Delaware County’s sirens are those much newer 2001-SRN variants. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course- they generally do their job well.

Still, hearing nothing but a sea of SRNs is like going to a marching band and hearing nothing but trumpets. Trumpets are cool and all, but where’s the fun in that? Give me a flugelhorn; dark and throaty. Give me a cornet- rounder and less piercing.

I can hear plenty of trumpeting 2001-SRNs from my house, and I can hear one at work. I can hear a resonant Thunderbolt -the flugelhorn in the mix- from both places every Friday morning, and can even hear the Banshee’s cornet from work if I strain. Maintaining old equipment is tough, though, which is why I welcome Delaware County Emergency Management’s decision to change the testing schedule. Effective yesterday, the test each Friday at 11:00 will no longer take place when the temperature is at or below 36°F.

According to the release, “this change is intended to reduce unnecessary wear and tear on outdoor warning siren equipment, particularly during colder conditions when ice accumulation may affect mechanical components4.” I’m all for it! The Thunderbolt at Riley’s chopper is dead, while the Thunderbolt at Gresham no longer rotates. We’ve got to save the functional pieces of history for as long as we can.

The Banshee downtown. Photo taken June 28, 2024. Delaware County already ceases tests when the weather gets bad. I want to say its new policy puts the county in line with its peers across the state, but I’m not so sure. Counties like Brown, Henry, and Shelby appear to test their sirens weekly, while Montgomery County tests its portfolio every two weeks. Allen, Boone, Madison, St. Joseph, and Tippecanoe test theirs monthly. Steuben County tests its sirens monthly between March and November, and Marion County runs its 2001-SRNs on growl every week and on alert every month5. There’s really no set standard.

The Thunderbolt at South View. Photo taken December 26, 2025. I don’t think it matters whether Delaware County tests its sirens more or less frequently than its neighbors. What matters is that they work when we need them. If skipping a few frigid Friday mornings keeps our aging Thunderbolts and Banshee in service for a while longer, I’m all for it. More than relics of the Cold War, they’re functional pieces of local history! Every time one falls silent, we lose a distinctive voice from our county’s warning system symphony. As for the one that has gone quiet -the Thunderbolt at Riley- I’d love to take it off the county’s hands if officials do home delivery.

Sources Cited

1 New CD Sirens Will Be Tested Monday Morning (1958, March 21). The Muncie Star. p. 6.

2 (See footnote 1).

3 Collier, W. (1974, June 7). Civil defense siren sounds in city again. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.

4 Kissick, C. (2026, November 12). Outdoor Warning Siren Testing Policy Update. Delaware County Emergency Management [Muncie]. Press release.

5 Harman, S. (n.d.). Indiana Siren Map. Google Maps. Web. Retrieved November 12, 2026.

Keeping Muncie’s Thunderbolts thunderbolting

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