This is why they test: Many of Douglas County’s new tornado sirens didn’t work properly during a storm drill Tuesday.

“Some worked, some didn’t,” said Paula Phillips, director of Douglas County Emergency Management. “Our maintenance provider will be here first thing in the morning.”

The 30 sirens were tested twice Tuesday, once each in the morning and evening as part of the statewide Severe Weather Awareness Week. During the evening test, Phillips sent weather spotters to 18 of the sirens to ensure they were working. Thirteen of those, she said, had various malfunctions.

Also, she said, the audio alert on Sunflower Broadband didn’t work during the morning test, although the video warning worked fine. Both worked during the evening test, she said.

Phillips said she didn’t believe the test results were cause for alarm.

“That’s why we do these things,” Phillips said, “so we can take care of things ahead of time.”

Phillips dispatched the weather spotters after her office received a number of phone calls Tuesday from people indoors who expected but failed to hear the sirens during Tuesday morning’s test as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week.

“We had people in our building who said they didn’t hear the sirens,” said Lisa Patterson, the communications coordinator at City Hall, which participated in the statewide tornado drill. “But we had people outside on smoke break who said they heard them fine.”

Phillips said that is the way the system is supposed to work. During severe weather it is expected that people indoors will tune to weather alerts via National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio alarms, or the emergency alert system on television and radio.

“Sirens are really only meant to warn people outdoors,” she said.

The sirens were installed about a year ago at a cost of about $400,000 to replace aging predecessors. It was becoming impossible to find replacement parts, Phillips said.

The new sirens have a higher pitch than the old ones, she said.

“People who could hear them indoors before all of the sudden can’t,” Phillips said.

Computers at her agency’s headquarters showed the alarms “worked, and they worked quite well,” she said after the morning test.

People with concerns about the alarms, she said, should call Douglas County Emergency Management at 832-5259.