Tornado Warning: Dumbass Sheriff Ignores natl weather service tornado warning - Your Local Dumbasses could too!

This isn't hard, if the national weather service issues a tornado warning then blow the warning sirens!

You're probably not aware that your local dumbass officials don't have to if they don't want to. There may or may not be a policy in place in your county/township.

Unfortunately you can't depend on officials to exercise common sense.

Moron Shawano County Sheriff whines:

"part of the issue might be a need for a clearer understanding of the advanced technology to which the weather service has access"

“If we blow the sirens too much, people will get complacent,” he said.

Gee, what was formerly a no-brainer - there's a tornado warning so I need to do my job and activate the warning sirens - is now an ISSUE becaue the sheriff is a moron.




Officials discuss storm siren policy at meeting

By Tim Ryan, Leader Reporter


A few hours before a brutal storm wreaked havoc on the western edge of Shawano County Tuesday, emergency management officials defended a decision to not sound tornado warning sirens during the severe weather that hit one week ago.

But they also said they would be more likely to sound the alarm next time.

“The next time this happens, we are going to activate the sirens when we know the (National) Weather Service has activated a tornado warning for our area,” said Emergency Management Director Steve Haskell.

The county had an opportunity to demonstrate its newfound willingness to err on the side of caution later on Tuesday with a new storm and a new tornado warning issued by the National Weather Service.

“We activated the sirens as soon as the warning was issued,” Haskell said, which would have been at about 5:15 p.m.

Haskell said the sirens were activated countywide, though in the western part of the county, “the warning came just as the storm was upon them.”

Wittenberg residents interviewed by the Shawano Leader Tuesday evening said they did not hear a siren. Several City of Shawano residents also said they did not hear a siren Tuesday afternoon and no sirens could be heard outside the Shawano Leader offices.

Haskell and Shawano County Sheriff Randy Wright addressed the sirens at a meeting of the Public Safety Committee earlier in the day Tuesday after the issue was raised by Child Support Manager Nancy Sparks.

Sparks said there was confusion at the courthouse during the July 14 storm, with some staff unaware of the tornado warning and others who were aware unsure of what steps they should take.

“There were no sirens, there was no announcement,” Sparks said. “Unless you had your radio on, you’re not going to know about it.”

A series of storms rumbled through the county July 14, bringing high winds and heavy rain to the area. Maximum wind gusts of 85 mph were clocked in the Mattoon/Bowler area that day and trees were downed or damaged throughout the county. Some power lines were also downed, causing outages in the western portion of the county.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Shawano County at about 2:30 p.m. that day, which was lifted about 45 minutes later.

According to the National Weather Service, a tornado warning is issued when a tornado has been spotted or Doppler Radar finds storm rotations that have the potential of causing tornadoes.

The July 14 warning from the weather service came without any accompanying sighting of actual tornado activity.

Wright said the county contacted the weather service office in Green Bay and was told there was no indication of a physical tornado, only the potential for one.

“It was different from warnings we had gotten in the past,” Wright said. “Our protocol (for initiating the sirens) is there has to be some confirmation of tornado activity.”

Nevertheless, many people and businesses in the county — aware of the tornado warning through television and radio alerts — were already taking precautions.

Shawano Mayor Lorna Marquardt said she had been told Walmart advised its customers to move to the center of the store and asked shoppers not to leave the building.

Many others in the community, however, were apparently unaware of the danger.

In an e-mail sent to Haskell last Friday raising concerns about the siren warning, Marquardt said some city employees went out to the parks to advise people of the tornado warning.

“That’s not what we want,” Haskell said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We want to make sure we’re communicating clearly with the public.”

Haskell said after the meeting the policy for warning the public in the case of severe weather is essentially the same.

“But we need to clarify how we’re going to coordinate activating the sirens with the weather service warnings,” he said. “The policy is when the weather service issues a tornado warning, that is for sure a time when we will activate the sirens.”

Haskell said part of the issue might be a need for a clearer understanding of the advanced technology to which the weather service has access.


full article here:

[link to www.shawanoleader.com]