With support from the network-weaving nonprofit Anthropocene Alliance (A2), fifteen community-based organizations are advancing a low-cost, life-saving idea: adapting existing outdoor warning sirens to deliver flood alerts to neighborhoods that smartphone-based systems don’t reliably reach.

North Little Rock has the highest number of properties at flood risk in Arkansas, with more than a third of properties affected and large areas within the 100-year floodplain. Roughly one in five residents live below the poverty line. Many lack reliable broadband access or smartphones — meaning that when fast-rising floodwaters arrive, the digital alert systems that most emergency planners rely on may simply not reach the people most at risk. The City of North Little Rock has 16 relatively new tornado sirens installed between 2016 and 2018. Research suggests those sirens can be adapted to deliver differentiated tones and messages for multiple hazard types, including flooding — at a fraction of the cost of new infrastructure.

A2 and its Arkansas State Organizing Committee are working to make that adaptation happen. The primary goal of this grant is to persuade and support the City of North Little Rock to reprogram its existing siren network for flood warnings. Alongside that technical objective, the project will conduct sustained community outreach — monthly neighborhood events, door-to-door engagement, and meetings with local officials and legislators — to ensure that residents understand both the risks of flooding and the limits of any single warning system. A2’s prior work in De Soto, Missouri, where a flood alert system has since guided dozens of evacuations, provides a model for what success looks like.

The project is explicit that sirens alone are not sufficient. Research consistently shows that warning systems work best as part of a broader preparedness network, and a parallel public awareness campaign is built into the design of this project from the start. A2’s four other State Organizing Committees — in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Louisiana — are already being engaged on the potential to replicate the approach, with Louisiana CBOs having expressed early interest.

CO2 Foundation is glad to support this project. The combination of low-cost infrastructure adaptation and deep community organizing offers a replicable model for reaching the residents most exposed to flood risk and least served by conventional alert systems.