Investigators say a hacker is responsible for turning on all 156 tornado sirens in Dallas late Friday night. It took the city and its Emergency Services Department 90-minutes to correct the problem.
Residents were both frightened and angered by the sirens, which started blaring just before midnight. Critics say it took emergency managers too long to send an alert that there was no emergency.
There was no severe weather in the area. City crews worked throughout Saturday to reset the sirens. Residents were also asked not to call 911 or 311 if they heard them go off during the reset period.
The City of Dallas issued a statement saying, “We can state at this time that the City’s siren system was hacked… For security reasons, we cannot discuss how this was done, but we do believe the hack came from the Dallas area.”