CHAFFEE -- John Halter keeps more than a wary eye on the weather this time of year. He also keeps tabs on severe weather with weather-alert radios in his home.

Halter is emergency management coordinator for Chaffee. He was civil defense director for Lewistown, Ill., for 25 years.

Halter isn't getting rich at the job. The city budgets only $500 a year for civil defense.

The Scott County town has one working tornado siren. "We also have an old fire siren that, when tested the other day, didn't work," Halter said.

But Halter and Joe Burton, who directs Scott County's Emergency Management Agency, suggest people can stay ahead of storms by buying weather-alert radios. Burton said the radios cost between $40 and $80. Halter purchased his three radios from an electronics store.

The radios can be programmed to receive warnings for a specific county or counties. They are activated by an emergency tone from the National Weather Service. A loud siren alerts the listener to warnings of bad weather. The listener then presses a button to hear details about approaching storms.

"These things are also battery operated in case the power goes out," Halter said.

Burton said, "These weather-alert radios can save lives if people will heed the warnings."

Burton and Halter recommend that all public gathering places, including churches and bingo clubs, purchase weather-alert radios.

In 1994 on Palm Sunday, a tornado destroyed a church in Piedmont, Ala., killing 20 people and injuring 70 others. Burton said reports indicated that no one had been listening to local weather reports on radio stations, and the nearest tornado sirens were 25 miles away. If the church had a weather radio, lives might have been saved, he said.

Burton said the weather-alert radios can provide Southeast Missouri residents with essential weather warnings. Warnings particularly are important in rural areas where there aren't emergency sirens, he said.