One Hilo emergency siren taken offline after a malfunction Monday has been reactivated.
A pair of Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sirens were deactivated after hardware malfunctions caused one of them to sound twice on Monday, once in the morning, and again in the evening.
HI-EMA spokesman Adam Weintraub said via email Wednesday that following the second incident, two sirens were deactivated because it was unclear which of the two was malfunctioning. A follow-up diagnostic test was able to determine that one siren, by the intersection of Kanoelehua Avenue and Banyan Drive, was faulty, and so the other siren was reactivated.
Weintraub wrote that there are several redundant sirens in Hilo, so the loss of one siren shouldn’t reduce protection to the public.
HI-EMA will send technicians to the Big Island to conduct a closer inspection of the faulty siren and make necessary repairs at an undetermined point in the future.