Last night San Antonio got hit by four tornados. The route was from the East, down Austin Highway, North up Broadway and then North up US 281. The tornados didn’t spend a lot of time on the ground and damage, is supposed to extensive. There are no reports of injury, due to the storm.

What makes last night notable is a holdover from the fifties that apparently still exists and is operational in Alamo Heights. I was out on the front porch when the tornados hit, and I’m five to seven miles distant, so I had no idea the storm was anything but a thunderstorm. But then the Civil Defense Sirens went off. San Antonio dismantled their system twenty years ago. I seem to remember Alamo Heights maintained one siren in the city hall complex, supplemented by two others, one East of town and the other West.

If one was around to hear them in the fifties and sixties, every Friday at noon, they were unique. First, they were growlers and took a few moments to spool up and get going. Second, they were stationary, so the sound remained consistent and didn’t have the doppler effect as it moved.

MY guess is that 80% of the people that heard the sirens didn’t know what they were or what the next step was for the populace. I think for me it means, no school tomorrow, but it has been a long time since I heard the sirens call.