The village of White Lake is working to hook up a new emergency alert system after a case of miscommunication left people with no warning of Thursday's tornadoes.

Village Clerk Karen Sellers says Langlade County contacted the village a few years back, saying the county was disconnecting its sirens because it was implementing a new system that was too expensive for outlying areas.

The miscommunication occurred over the word "disconnect."

Sellers says White Lake assumed the sirens had been turned off completely, but in reality, the county would no longer be able to set them off.

Someone in White Lake would have to manually do it from the village hall.

"I don't think we would have called somebody and said, 'Hey, run over there and flip the switch!'" says Sellers. "You don't want anyone out, either. You're supposed to be in your basement."

Now the village, which says it was working on a new system before the storm hit, is looking to connect to a place - perhaps the Langlade County Sheriff's Department - that would have 24/7 access to setting off the sirens.

That will not be cheap.

White Lake is also working on a back-up plan that involves a mill whistle that's louder than the sirens themselves.