It was 1 in the morning, and the Downers Grove tornado siren was wailing. And for nearly an hour, nobody could figure out how to turn it off.
More than 900 calls poured in as crews scrambled in the wee hours Thursday to find the malfunctioning electrical circuit that set it off.
Startled awake, Gracie Ruyle tried soothing her 14-month-old son by turning on cartoons. But the boy buried his head in the couch cushions.
The family fled to the basement, but the ear-shattering din followed. Finally, as they packed their bags and discussed whether to stay with nearby family or at a hotel, the siren suddenly stopped.
Residents of the sleepy suburb woke up sleepier than usual on the first day of spring, grumpily complaining about the ear-splitting noise and lashing out at village officials for not taking measures to assure them it was not an emergency.
Downers Grove operates a local cable TV channel and a Web site that could have assuaged nervous residents, said village spokesman Doug Kozlowski.
But more than the worry, it was the noise, said Janell Hart, who lives less than 100 feet from the siren. “It was ear-shattering, it was awful, especially being right next door to it,” said Hart, a psychologist who likened it to forms of torture. “It was almost nauseating. It kept going, wave after wave.”
Eventually, frustrated crews just cut power to the siren at the corner of Summit and Main Streets, which was the only one of the village’s seven to malfunction, Kozlowski said.
Though rare, other Chicago suburbs have experienced the false panic of a siren malfunction. In April 2003, a siren in Skokie accidentally was triggered late at night, blaring for about half an hour and prompting hundreds of calls from residents across the North Shore.
