Bethany Beach council members on Nov. 16 continued discussion about a possible addition to the town’s existing lightning warning system — one that would announce itself, quite literally.
The town’s existing lightning warning system detects conditions ripe for lightning strikes and automatically sends notifications to town police and lifeguards so they can remove beachgoers from danger.
Town Manager Cliff Graviet has proposed that the town add on to that system with a voice warning that would automatically announce the danger in plain English and instruct people to head for shelter. It could also be used to notify the public of lost children or to give wider evacuation instructions in the event of a major storm.
Graviet said the particular focus of the plan was to provide for the times after lifeguards go off duty, when many people are still out on the beach and in the ocean but when no one would be in the immediate vicinity to transmit the warning.
According to Graviet, Public Safety Officer and Bethany Beach Police Department Capt. Ralph Mitchell has said, “There is no end to the good things we can do for public safety.” But Graviet posed the question to council members of what they want for the community.
“The voice warning could be very useful,” Graviet added, noting it was being used in many coastal communities for potential in tsunami warnings, as well as by ball fields and golf courses for lightning warnings and by universities for warning of danger on campus. He said the latter use was pushing the price of the systems upward with demand soaring after the Virginia Tech massacre and this fall’s Delaware State University shooting.
As proposed, the system would cost between $38,000 and $54,000, minus a $15,000 grant the town has qualified for and must use in the near future. The price range covers a smaller, two-pole and two-speaker system that would primarily focus along the beach area and cover up to the 400 block of some streets, with locations at Wellington Parkway and Third Street, versus a three-pole, three-speaker system that could cover most of the town, west to Bethany West.
But council members and citizens on Friday continued to express concern about how disruptive the system could potentially become, with decibel levels ranging upwards of 124 db at the speakers, which would be mounted 35 feet above ground.
“I wouldn’t want to be there,” resident Phil Boesch said of the speaker poles in use and concerns for possible resulting hearing damage.
Council members and other citizens expressed concern about possible disruption to sleep, but Graviet emphasized that the town can choose the hours during which automatic warnings would be issued and manually select times for other uses. However, those sleeping during the day — babies and the elderly or infirm alike — could be looking at some rude awakenings on a stormy summer afternoon, pointed out resident Cherie Dorfman.
“It is going to be loud,” Graviet said. “But at that height it will be less.”
Graviet said Mitchell had witnessed tests of a system in La Plata, Md., which was struck by a devastating tornado in 2002. Standing within 50 to 60 feet of the poles, Graviet said, Mitchell had reported the devices were “loud, but not horrendous.”
Vice-Mayor Tony McClenny was torn. “I was so glad when the fire department siren went away, I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “But this is a public safety issue,” he emphasized, weighing in in favor of a two-pole system.
Mayor Carol Olmstead said she agreed about the two-pole system being preferable, as did Council Members Steve Wode and Jerry Dorfman.
Council Member Joseph Healy, however, said he was concerned about community pools within the town that do not have lifeguards to warn swimmers of dangerous weather. He favored the larger system for its ability to better spread such a warning to those locations, while Council Member Bob Parsons also noted some recreational use of the Loop Canal and Assawoman Canal.
Debating both the potential disruption of the system overall and whether to consider the larger or smaller of the two set-ups, council members determined their best path forward might be with a “field trip” to La Plata or another location in the region where the system is in use and could be tested for their benefit. That trip was to be set up in the near future.