Tuesday, March 13, 2012
By Angelique McNaughton
To mark national Severe Weather Awareness Week, the city of Fort Scott will be participating in the statewide tornado drill for Kansas and Missouri at 1:30 p.m. today.
The purpose of the annual drill is to test everyone’s readiness for life-threatening severe weather events such as tornadoes, flash floods, large hail and damaging winds, according to the National Weather Service website.
Bourbon County Emergency Manager Keith Jeffers said public schools in Fort Scott and Uniontown will be participating in the drill, although he is unsure about the local private schools.
Fort Scott Community College will participate in a full-scale drill where all faculty and students will be moved into shelters at all five campuses. The testing will allow for sound testing at the campus location on Horton Street and at the nursing school location on Burke Street.
He said officials will time how long it takes to get into the shelters. The ideal time, Jeffers said, is about 30 seconds to a minute.
“We need to make sure everyone knows how to get in their shelters and make sure they are ready to go and their kids are ready,” Jeffers said.
The storm siren is generally sounded 11 to 15 minutes before a tornado strikes and is an outdoor warning only.
Emergency officials suggest community members also keep a weather alert radio of some sort in their homes.
“When they (the sirens) go off, it’s usually clear,” Jeffers said. “The best way to do it is to listen to TV or radio until it states ‘all clear.'”
Severe Weather Awareness Week, which falls at the same time as Flood Awareness Week, is generally held around this time of year before the major spring storms hit, although the area has already had a few.
The year 2011 was the fourth deadliest tornado season on record with 549 causualties. Of those, 157 were the result of the EF-5 tornado that hit the Joplin, Mo., area on May 22, 2011.
“It’s always imporant to do this not from a business or school aspect but also from a family one,” Jeffers said. “People need to decide where to go if they don’t have a shelter, or if they’re out driving they need to see what they would do if they are out in the open.”
Daily themes for the week are:
* Tuesday: Tornado Day.
* Wednesday: Flash Flood Day.
* Thursday: Thunderstorm Day.
* Friday: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio Day.
Angelique McNaughton 