KENNER, La. - While many people in Kenner are still dealing with power outages, others are picking up the pieces after a tornado ripped through their neighborhood.
Residents there say they needed more warning, which is why Eyewitness News set out to find out why only a handful of parishes have tornado sirens.
It was not until a twister touched down that residents on Tulane Drive realized just how bad the storm was. Many had already lost power, while others lost their TV service, giving them little warning as to what was coming.
"I didn't know what was going on. I really didn't," said Alice Bordelon.
"We got a severe weather alert, but, actually, the lights did go out, so we maybe had an hour without lights when the tornado happened," said Mark Aguilar.
Aguilar said tornado sirens would give him peace of mind knowing his family would know what to do if another tornado touches down in his neighborhood.
However, Orleans and Jefferson parishes do not have emergency sirens. Still, several other parishes, including St. John the Baptist Parish, St. James Parish and St. Charles Parish, have siren systems in place.
"There are 73 sirens total in the system, 34 of which are in St. Charles Parish," said Ron Perry, the director of emergency preparedness for Homeland Security in St. Charles Parish.
Perry said sirens are a familiar sound to residents because the federal government requires a system be in place around the nearby Waterford 3 nuclear plant.
"The warning system was bought, paid for and maintained by Waterford 3," Perry said. "All the areas within the 10 miles zone are liable to be covered by a siren system to provide alerting to the public in the event of an accident at Waterford 3 or any other emergency that may take place."
While Perry said the emergency siren systems work well, but he said they are very expensive to install and maintain.
It is one reason some parishes have opted to use emergency alert systems that sends warnings to residents via email, text or landline phones.
Still, some Kenner residents worry about their elderly neighbors getting those alerts and say sirens are the way to go.
"We would be better prepared," Aguilar said. "We won't be guessing what to do and we would actually know what to do."
Officials in Jefferson Parish say putting in a siren system would be very difficult because of how the parish is geographically laid out.
Instead, both Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish use emergency systems that push alerts through text, email and social media.
