KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
The repair of waterlogged tsunami sirens in the borough of Kodiak is close to completion. Borough engineering and facilities director Bob Tucker says Kodiak received a state of Alaska legislative grant last fall to fix the alarm system.
“The controls that run the sirens are in steel boxes, and the steel boxes are failing. Obviously salt water in Kodiak, weather, they don’t last long. So, we’re replacing all those enclosures with some very nice fiberglass ones so that we won’t have that issue again, so that’s pretty much what we’re doing now.”
Tucker says the original funds were $100,000, and the Borough added $20,000 to the annual operating budget for maintenance. He says after they repair the broken sirens, they’ll move onto the functioning ones and update those to fiberglass.
He says they hope to establish a program to prevent further issues.
“It’s a regular annual review of the sirens and an annual run-up of all the different tones and then an actual, physical inspection of them.”
He says installing the sirens with fiberglass enclosures requires big trucks and other vehicles and cautions that drivers should be aware and steer clear of the workers. He says they’ll be re-installing an improved siren on Metrokin Road next, and they hope to have fixed all the damaged sirens by mid-June.
