Part of the problem with the repair effort is finding up-to-date and working parts for the siren, which is more than 70 years old and a hand-me-down from another township.

With a tornado bearing down on the small Missouri town of Sparta, the lone warning siren stayed silent because a downed tree kept the mayor from getting downtown to flip the switch that activates ...

Most tornado sirens are activated remotely by computer, but not Sparta’s. The old siren is hand-operated from a tiny building that once housed City Hall. Only the mayor is authorized to set it off.