DeKalb County, GA

An inactive Thunderbolt in Cobb County which was ex-Dekalb CD.

The **DeKalb County civil defense** **siren system** was a system composed of around 28 Federal Signal Thunderbolts, with several other sirens preceding them. Today, however, all that is left of these sirens are barren poles, and all but 1 are still extant. The system covered DeKalb County and its communities.

## History

DeKalb and CD sirens go all the way back to the 1940s and early 1950s. There are records of sirens existing in the county as early as 1945, with individual sirens being in Stone Mountain, Decatur, and Pine Lake. In 1953, as part of a set of 25 sirens purchased by the City of Atlanta, the county got 10 B&N BN52 Mobil Directos. In 1962, the county invested time into purchasing a system of newer, more modern sirens. The fruit of these efforts came to be in 1963, when the county obtained 27 new Thunderbolt sirens. These sirens were installed in 1963, with the last one being installed on Christmas Eve of that year at a currently unknown location. At some point between then and the early 1980s however, another siren was added as when the system was taken offline in 1989, it was reported that 28 sirens existed in the county.

### Mishaps

As with any system, there are bound to be mishaps, unscheduled activations, and unintentional activations. Below, you will find the dates and a description of each mishap. All of these are from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

* **September 23, 1970:** The siren on the DeKalb Building went off on its own before officials shut it down by disconnecting it. Per the article, this was the third time in a span of three days the siren did that. The malfunction was blamed on faulty wires. This is the earliest recorded malfunction of DeKalb's CD system. Published September 24, 1970.

* **May 18, 1971:** The siren system was set off after safety devices were added to the sirens by Southern Bell Telephone Co. This telephone company was responsible for maintaining the phone line relay system used to activate the sirens. Published May 20, 1971.

* **December 8, 1977:** During a short function check of a siren installed on the Callaway Building in downtown Decatur, the system got stuck and in the ensuing chaos all of the sirens sounded for 45 minutes in the county. A cause was not immediately listed for the fault, however the sirens were tested on December 9 that year (that Friday and when the article was published) to ensure the problem was solved. Published December 9, 1977.

* **February 14, 1980:** The sirens went off after one was tripped due to a rodent (to be exact, a squirrel) chewing on wires that could be implied were for a relay on one of the sirens. The sirens went off for one hour sporadically as a result. Published February 15, 1980.

* **March 19, 1980:** Sirens in DeKalb and Fulton were set off due to an error on Bell Telephone's end. Published March 20, 1980.

* **February 3, 1981:** DeKalb's siren system was set off for one minute as a salute to Col. Charles Scott of Stone Mountain. Col. Scott was a hostage in Iran during the hostage crisis, and was released after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States on January 20, 1981. This sound off was planned in January of 1981. Published January 29, 1981.

* **January 24: 1984:** A siren that had been out of commission since December 1982 due to the blower getting destroyed was fixed after the company responsible for the damages agreed to pay the price for the replacement parts in full, which was $3,700. This siren was reportedly on Cool Ridge Circle, which does not appear to exist. There is reason to believe that the damaged siren was the one on Peachtree Rd. near Shallowford Rd. This article is also noteworthy as it is the earliest article mentioning the existence of 28 sirens in DeKalb County's CD system. This article is also the latest article of this sort. Published January 25, 1984.

* **February 29, 1984:** While not an accident or a mishap per se, the sirens were sounded off schedule on that day for the 1984 SWA tornado drill. This is the latest known article about the DeKalb CD sirens excluding the one talking about the decommissioning of the sirens in 1989.

As mentioned, the sirens were decommissioned in 1989, with their final test occurring on January 5th of that year. Later on in the year, the sirens were removed and at a later point, sold to Cobb County, where they served until they eventually broke down and were replaced. Today, only one ex-DeKalb siren remains in Cobb County, at Meridian Brick company in Smyrna.

The county's CD system was exclusively Thunderbolt 1000Ts, however 3 1000s have turned up after their service in DeKalb ended and they went on to serve in Cobb. It is presently unknown which sirens were 1000s and which ones were 1000Ts exactly.

## Schedule

DeKalb's sirens were tested every Wednesday at noon in full alert for most of their lives. However, an article from April 27, 1964, indicates that very early on, the test schedule was Fridays at noon. An article from 1977 implies the sirens were tested monthly on the first Wednesday at noon for one minute of a steady tone, as the same article mentions full alert being used for non-nuclear emergencies, with wail being saved for nuclear emergencies only. By the time the system was decommissioned, the sirens were tested on the first working day of the month.

## Gallery

### Former

The Avondale High School Thunderbolt in 1964.The Atlanta Fire Station #12 Thunderbolt in 1988.The Clifton Rd. & North Decatur Rd. Thunderbolt being installed in 1963.What remained of the Ashford Dunwoody Rd. & Johnson Ferry Rd. Pole was removed in January 2020.The Medlock Rd. Thunderbolt in 1971. Pole remained until the Walmart was built there in 2016.The Callaway Building Thunderbolt in 1966.
### Current

The Oak Grove Elementary Thunderbolt. Siren is still extant sans the controls and blower.What remains of the Dunwoody Elementary School Thunderbolt.What remains of the Litton Drive Thunderbolt.What remains of the Rockbridge Rd. & Hairston Way Thunderbolt.What remains of the Stephenston Rd. Thunderbolt.What remains of the Midvale Rd. Thunderbolt.What remains of the Avondale High School Thunderbolt.What remains of the Stone Mountain City Hall Thunderbolt.
## References

1. ↑ DeKalb County, Georgia CD siren system locations