[NLRS] Storm in Rogers

[Doug Reed]

Hi Tom.

Your comments sound accurate to me. I don't know anything about the 
storm or the events leading up, but what you've said sounds exactly like 
  things were done according to policy.

1. Sirens are OUTDOOR warning devices. They are not called "outdoor" 
because they are on telephone poles. They are called outdoor because 
that is where they are expected to be heard. Why do these idiots bitch 
about can't hear the sirens and then turn around and say airplanes are 
too noisy?

2. Every TV, Radio, and cable company are required to put crawl messages 
on the bottom of your TV screen and to rebroadcast audio from the SAME 
warning messages. So if the TV or radio had been on when the weather 
warnings were issued, they would have seen the warnings. But few people 
pay attention to watches and storm warnings.

3. A SAME weather radio is intended to be programmed to go off only when 
there are weather alerts for your county and it is inside your house to 
wake you when the warning is sent. That will usually give you 15-30 
minutes of warning, but in a situation like Rogers, it might only be 
seconds or a few minutes. But that could still be enough to save your 
life and your family. It will not help the people where the first 
touch-down occurred, but people up the track will get some warning.

4. If the county set off the sirens for every warning, then people would 
bitch that nothing happened. It is clearly a no-win situation. Damned if 
you do, damned if you don't. No matter what the policy, the news people 
will always be able to find someone to spout off about "no warning" or 
"nothing happened." As far as I know, in the metro area only Dakota 
County has a policy of sounding the sirens for every severe storm 
warning. All others sound for tornado warnings.

In my opinion, the final responsibility for keeping yourself safe lies 
with you, the individual. If I ignore 99 warnings and the 100th includes 
a tornado, that is my own responsibility, not yours or the county or the 
NWS. The NWS makes a good faith effort to let the public know about 
dangerous situations. If I'm too dumb to pay attention, there is only 
one person to blame.

This subject does hit my hot button a bit....

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.

"Think of it as evolution in action."
 From "Oath of Fealty" by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle.

tom ring wrote:
> 
> While at the 10G cumulative fixed spot yesterday I was told that John is fine.  
> He was in the southern part of Rogers, and the storm was more to the north.
> 
> The destruction is quite bad.  200 homes damaged, 50 destroyed.  One 10 year 
> old girl was killed; the reports are she was with her brother at a neighbour's 
> house babysitting.  I may be wrong on that, the reports weren't really clear 
> this morning.
> 
> The tornado developed so quickly that the warning sirens went off after the 
> tornado was on the ground.  This happened after dark, so no spotters saw it 
> develop.  Listening to the news, it looks like the county government is going 
> to blame the National Weather Service, even though they had issued a tornado 
> watch several hours earlier, as well as a severe thunderstorm WARNING.  There 
> were also complaints that they could not hear the sirens inside the house - 
> they are designerd to be heard outdoors.  This county, Hennepin, does NOT sound 
> the sirens for severe thunderstorm warnings, while many others do, so the 
> people did not get that warning.  I have my own opinions about the county that 
> I won't bother to pass on.  My advice is to buy a weather alert radio if you 
> don't have one.  Cheap insurance.
> 
> tom
> K0TAR