As storm season approaches and on the eve of the statewide tornado drill, it is prudent to refresh everyone’s minds about storm season, says Camden County Emergency Management director Denise Russell. The Ozarks storm season can be as kind as it can be violent.
Now is the time of year when everyone should break out the weather radio, dust if off, give it fresh back-up batteries, turn it on and leave it on, Russell advised.
This last year proved a challenge in terms of storm prediction both for the National Weather Service and for the emergency management staff.
We experienced storms that produced two EF-1 tornados in severe and tornadic activity instantly and without warning leeway, she said.
Prepare yourself before the storm
The more often we experience these storm trends the more urgent the need for pre-event preparedness. Have a plan that requires no last-minute thought, only action. Gather the supplies, put them in the car, by the basement door, in the basement or shelter area.
Do not rely on the sirens to tell you the tornado is coming, it may already be here, Russell said. Pay heed to the watches that are activated in this area – watches mean watch the sky, warnings mean it’s already upon us.
Act accordingly and think about what message you are sending your children. If you put your family in the shelter space and then you go outside to “watch the weather,” what message are you sending?
EMS & responders roles explained
The emergency management office and response agencies function together. At the NWS prediction of a potential storm, I receive notification, which is then passed to our EOC staff and the local response agencies – a head’s up so to speak, Russell said.
When the event is shaping up, the EOC is activated and we monitor the situation, she explained. In the event we determine we need “weather spotters” activated for an “eye on the ground”, we notify the specific area agencies including amateur radio spotters, emergency services spotters, etc.
Those firefighters, law enforcement officers, and radio spotters feed information back to the EOC which is in turn provided in a specific format to the NWS through a specialized Emergency Management internet feed.
This information assists the NWS in determining the storm activity and movement. This information is also instrumental in determining the next set of polygon warnings that may need to be issued.
Polygon warnings
The NWS has gone to a polygon warning system. It has been tested and tried previously, but is now used almost exclusively.
Polygons are specific areas of warning that are far more concentrated than before. They can target specific areas such as zip codes, multiple city coordinates, etc, or the old fashioned way with blanket county level alerts.
Polygons are extremely helpful here at the lake. When there is a warning in southern Camden County there is no reason to sound sirens on Horseshoe Bend and send everyone to their basements for no reason if they are unaffected.
In the past we sent spotters to specific areas to “weather watch”, with the death of a spotter in a tornado in SW Missouri, that practice has been modified and night time spotting is discouraged.
Our primary goal is to keep our personnel safe, she said. We now advise and train our spotters to view from a safe location and do not deploy to a remote open area to storm watch.
Statewide tornado drill is Thursday
2010 Severe Weather Awareness Week is March 8-12.
The statewide tornado drill will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, March 11.
The NWS will send the drill message out as if it were an actual warning, so All Hazard NOAA Weather Radio stations will tone alert, and it is our hope that local officials will sound tornado sirens as well.
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. —
