PETERSBURG, Ky. — Anyone who heard a warning siren in Boone County Wednesday can rest assured it was just a test, not a tornado.

The county tested its siren system ahead of its regularly scheduled test on the first Wednesday of the month, after the system failed to sound the sirens during a confirmed tornado earlier this month.

The National Weather Service said an EF1 tornado touched down in Petersburg on June 18. The tornado was on the ground from 9:09 - 9:14 p.m. and traveled 2.8 miles. Wind speeds maxed out at 90 miles an hour.

It left damage behind on Stevens Road where Chuck Marshall has lived for 44 years. Marshall said he’ll always remember the sound.

“It didn’t last long. It’s wind that I’ve never heard before. I heard screaming, and I believe it was because of a wire fence over here alongside the house," he said.

One thing he definitely didn’t hear were sirens. Nobody could, because they weren’t working.

“Didn’t pay attention to any alerts or anything,” Marshall said. “Got a phone call from a family member to alert us.”

Boone County’s Emergency Management Director Mark Ihrig explained what happened.

“We had some weather go through the area that ended up needing a tornado warning to go out. Our communications center went through their normal protocol to activate the outdoor warning sirens, and there was a system malfunction," Ihrig said.

He hasn’t seen the system malfunction in his 11 years as director. The county’s vendor came to test the system, and everything seemed to work fine.

“I mean that’s really the frustration of it. Our system vendor was down, called it a system anomaly," Ihrig said. "They couldn’t replicate it. And that, even more in my mind, added to the importance of testing early, as soon as we could get it tested, and get the information out to the public,” he said. “We felt it was important to have a test before the routine test. We didn’t want to wait two weeks.”

The county ran the test Wednesday. Everything worked.

“Everything appears to have gone extremely well. We had some spot checks out in the community. All those came back that they could hear the sirens just fine. The system itself shows that every siren activated,” Ihrig said.

The county tests the system the first Wednesday of each month unless the weather is questionable outside, so as to not confuse the public by sounding an alarm when storms could be passing through.

There are 31 sirens in Boone County, and sure enough, Marshall could hear them this time. He said he’s not overly concerned about their functionality, though.

“It didn't affect us not knowing. I mean there’s plenty of alerts out there now, without that siren. I think it’s important in case someone really needs it, but it doesn’t do much for us here,” he said.

Ihrig said the sirens are there to warn people outside to take cover.

“I think the outdoor warning sirens are an important part of a comprehensive system that the community should really have. They’re just one piece,” he said.

The county said that other means should be adopted by residents, such as a weather radio or local media reports as the sirens are not designed to be heard inside homes or buildings.

"Everyone is encouraged to have multiple sources to receive immediate severe weather alerts including a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and battery backup. In addition, Boone County offers the CodeRed Weather Warning system which will call your phone when severe weather approaches your selected location," the county said in a news release.  

To sign up for CodeRed alerts, go to the Boone County Emergency Management website and click on the CodeRed logo.