Community Outdoor Warning Sirens

Community Outdoor Warning Sirens (COWS)
We have 34 COWS spread across the City of Henderson, Robards, Corydon and all over Henderson County. If you hear one that is being activated for an extended period of time, you should take shelter immediately and tune in to your favorite local media outlet as to what/where the threat is.

We only activate COWS for Tornado Warnings or Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. They are not activated for watches of any kind. Every COW in Henderson County is tested twice daily and an audible test is triggered each Friday at 12:00 Noon. The audible tests only last 5-10 seconds instead of 60 seconds as they were prior to our December 2024 change, so you may not hear the Friday test any longer. A real world warning will be activated for three minutes and re-activated every 15 minutes until the threat has been cancelled by the National Weather Services in Paducah, KY.

COWS are only designed for “OUTDOOR NOTIFICATION”, they are not intended to alert residents who are already indoors. For indoor notification, please sign up for Hyper-Reach Public Alerts to alert you by voice, text and email. Hyper-Reach is a service provided through Henderson County, Kentucky Government, City of Henderson, KY Government and Henderson Emergency Management. Hyper-Reach uses a polygon based alerting system, which means, if you are within the Polygon drawn by the US National Weather Service Paducah Kentucky, you will be notified on all of your devices you added when you registered for Hyper-Reach. Sign up for Hyper-Reach at no cost here.

Four different ways to receive alerts

1. Get you a weather radio immediately if you don't have one.
2. Download "Storm Shield" on your mobile device
3. Download "Everything Weather" on your mobile device (Free App - created by an NWS Employee)
4. Download 14 First Alert - mobile alerts
5. Download Eyewitness News WEHT WTVW - mobile alerts
6. Sign up for Hyper-Reach Public Alerts - Emergency Alerts
7. Sign up for KnowNow our latest alerting software for day to day push notifications to your cell phone

Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (iPAWS)
Hyper-Reach is linked to iPAWS. IPAWS is FEMA's national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public through mobile phones using (WEAs) Wireless Emergency Alerts, to radio and television via the Emergency Alert System, and on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Weather Radio. This is why weather radios are critical during storms.

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs)
WEAs are short emergency messages from authorized federal, state, local, tribal and territorial public alerting authorities that can be broadcast from cell towers to any WEA‐enabled mobile device in a locally targeted area. Wireless providers primarily use cell broadcast technology for WEA message delivery. WEA is a partnership among FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and wireless providers to enhance public safety.

WEAs can be sent to your mobile device when you may be in harm’s way, without the need to download an app or subscribe to a service. WEAs are messages that warn the public of an impending natural or human-made disaster. The messages are short and can provide immediate, life-saving information. To receive WEA message, you will need to activate emergency alerts on your mobile device, here’s how.

1. Turn on Emergency Alerts on your mobile devices

On an iPhone - Settings/Notifications (bottom of the list)

On an Android Device - Settings/Safety and Emergency Settings

Additional Information
Frequently Asked Questions from The National Weather Service
https://www.weather.gov/dvn/sirenFAQ