40 years ago: Tornado season arrives before sirens installed

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for March 15, 1973:

  • Douglas County’s new disaster siren warning system, which had been scheduled to be installed in time for tornado season, was not yet in use. H. H. Belote, Douglas County civil defense director, said this week that seven of the 15 sirens in the network had been delivered and only two of them had been installed, at Kansas University. The remainder — 10 others in Lawrence, and one each in Baldwin, Lecompton, and Eudora — were expected to be installed within the next 30 to 45 days. The county had experienced the season’s first tornado alert on the previous day, with weather watchers from the Douglas County Amateur Radio Club on the lookout in lieu of sirens.
  • The Kansas House, for the second time, today killed a bill which would have authorized liquor advertising on the billboards of the state.