Quite a few people were alarmed when a tornado siren blasted for a long period of time on Wednesday afternoon in Summerville. 

The siren, located at the Chattooga County Ag Building off Highway 100 is operated by the City of Summerville.  The first Wednesday of every month, the siren is tested – and Wednesday’s test revealed a problem.

Summerville City Councilman Joe Money explained, ” This siren warned a lot longer than usual during todays monthly test due to the reactifier overheating causing it to malfunction. Sirens for Cities will be replacing this reactifier the first of next week. This is the reason these sirens are tested on a monthly basis to hopefully repair any malfunctions and have these sirens run flawlessly during an emergency situation.”