Tornado sirens have been a decades-old practice of warning the public of severe weather in their communities.

Now Mahoning County will be next to add an additional resource to warn the public of incoming severe weather information. The program is called IPAWS, or Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, and no action is needed on your end as long as you have emergency alerts activated on your phone.

The next time there is an emergency weather situation issued by the National Weather Service you'll receive that notification, something Mahoning County EMA Deputy Director Robin Lees says will be an additional resource to communicate life-saving information to even more people in the county.

"Not everyone is going to hear a siren. We have 52 sirens throughout the county and you can't predict when there will be a malfunction with one of them. The other thing is, people might be out of earshot of one of the sirens. Whether they are in their home, basement, or garage, but who doesn't have a phone on them? The other thing is it will reach folks that are passing through the area through a system of what's known as geo-fencing where we draw a circle around the county. So if you're passing through on the freeway your phone is going to get alerted as well," says Lees. 

Mahoning County isn't doing away with tornado sirens, IPAWS will just be an additional resource to reach even more people in the county or those passing through. So if you live in a community that has been placed under a tornado warning, you'll hear a siren but receive the alerts digitally as well.

And it's not just emergency weather information that you'll get an alert for, anything that requires immediate action or attention will be pushed to your device.

Lees also adds, besides the other mechanical and communication issues that come with sirens, financially they are difficult to maintain. There are 52 sirens in the county, costing the county $150,000 to maintain annually. 

IPAWS has been tested and is ready to be used in Mahoning County. The first IPAWS alert will go out during the statewide tornado drill on Wednesday, March 22 between 9:50 and 10:00 a.m.