When it comes to severe weather, many people don’t heed the warnings and don’t take precautions. That apathy can be deadly.
According to the National Weather Service, there are many reasons why people didn’t heed warnings that came down on Feb. 5-6 in nine states in the southern United States. Fifty-seven people were killed. The National Weather Service had issued warnings about 17 minutes before the tornadoes struck.
The reasons why people didn’t take more precautions vary from lack of shelter to the belief that it couldn’t happen to them.
Rick Frevert, director of Lyon County Emergency Management, said many people around this area procrastinate.
“We’ve noticed no matter how much media coverage and no matter what types of media we use, if it doesn’t affect you right now it kinda falls on deaf ears,” Frevert said.
Frevert said Lyon County became a storm-ready community in 2006 and was recognized by the National Weather Service because of the county’s ability to use resources to inform the community of severe weather and the type of training in the county. Frevert said Emergency Management is recommending that people use electronic media in emergencies.
“When the weather starts deteriorating and it’s time for a warning we’ll use electronic media and NOAA Weather Radio,” he said. “We strongly encourage people to have a NOAA weather radio and have it programmed for the area they are in and for all storms.”
Frevert said some of the mistakes the public makes with weather radios is programming the devices only for tornadoes or programming it for too wide of an area. There is no perfect solution either, especially when it comes to which counties to set your weather radio for. Frevert said people who set the radio up for multiple counties complain they aren’t getting enough sleep because of all the alerts and then they turn it off, which is counterproductive as well. But it’s not always best to set the weather radio to one county either.
“It’s not that easy,” Frevert said. “If you live in the center part of the county you might luck out...But if you’re on the fringe part of the county again and there’s a prediction there is nothing guaranteed about this stuff.”
Frevert said when people are warned about a storm they should take cover. Period.
“That means people need to take care of themselves,” he said of the warnings.
Residents also need to be prepared.
“They need to pre-plan what they are going to do in a tornado warning,” he said. “Where can they get to shelter in a reasonable amount of time? Most of the time you have 10 to 11 minutes.”
Frevert added that people shouldn’t wait until the sirens go off to take cover.
“When the warning comes out, it’s pretty much time to be in that shelter not trying to move,” he said.
Another part of preparation is emergency preparedness kits. These kits should include medicines, food, water, first aid kits, flashlights, batteries and other survival items. For a complete list of planning guides go to http://www.fema.org/plan/index.shtm.
Sirens
The City of Emporia has been struggling with defective sirens for some time. All of Emporia’s severe weather sirens are operational as of Friday, according to the Emporia Police Department. Police Chief Gary Smith said Monday afternoon that several options for new sirens will be brought to the Emporia City Commission in late April. Some of the city’s sirens are between 15 and 40 years old.
They are located at:
• 800 W. Ninth Ave. (Walnut School), Type ACA
• 15th Avenue and Merchant Street (Emporia State University), Federal Signal Thunderbolt
• 4000 W. 18th Ave. (soccer fields), ACA Alerter
• East Fifth Avenue and Elba (Casey’s East), ACA Alerter
• 900 E. 12th Ave. (Dillons), Federal Signal 2001 AC
• South Avenue and Constitution Street (Head Start), Federal Signal Thunderbolt
• 700 E. Logan Ave. (Logan Avenue School), Federal Signal 2001 AC
• West 12th Avenue and Woodland (Emporia Child Care), Federal Signal Thunderbolt
• 1400 W. South Ave. (near Las Casitas Park), ACA Alerter
• 24th Avenue and Jones Avenue (Jones Park), Federal Signal Thunderbolt
• Dryer Park (Water Treatment Plant), Federal Signal 2001 AC
• 1700 Industrial Road (Fire Station No. 2), ACA Alerter
• 3700 Oakes Drive (Kansa Corp.), ACA Alerter
madpoet (anonymous) says...
And then there's people who think they're 10 foot tall and bulletproof. I will never forget the time I was working at Burger King and we had a tornado warning. We turned off the gas and herded everyone to the back by the freezer and hoped for the best. The sirens were still sounding when the drive thru beeper went off. After much arguement, I was appointed to go up and tell the fool we were closed until the all clear was sounded. He couldn't understand that the gas was off and the cash drawers were in the safe so no, he couldn't buy anything. He was just out driving around. And a tornado had been spotted not far from there! I wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't there.
March 17, 2009 at 2:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bobhornet (anonymous) says...
We would take cover if the sirens worked!!!
March 17, 2009 at 5:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
superchief (anonymous) says...
Hey, I'm not surprised. I used to work at a convenience store here in Wichita. Whenever the sirens went off, the store would fill with customers for some inexplicable reason. I know for a fact they weren't storm chasers.
March 17, 2009 at 8:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )