Most Joplin residents ignored twister warning, experts find

Source: MSNBC

"The vast majority of Joplin residents" did not respond to the first siren warning of the May 22 twister that killed 162 people because of a widespread disregard for tornado sirens, federal officials concluded in a report issued Tuesday.

"This was a warned event," Kathryn Sullivan, deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told reporters, noting that several days before forecasters were warning of a strong possibility of twisters.

Officials didn't blame residents, many of whom complained that sirens often go off in Joplin for tests or even just when dark clouds form, and suggested that a "non-routine warning mechanism" be developed to make it clear when a siren should be taken seriously.

Keith Stammer, who heads the local county's emergency management agency, said the department issued two sets of sirens ahead of the tornado and that many people ignored the first siren.

Some people thought a second siren was an all-clear signal, which it wasn't, he said. Stammer said he has never issued an "all-clear" during his 18 years in the department.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44596753/ns/weather/

They become blase about it. I didn't, I used to drag my kids to the basement while my husband just went about his business (being one of those blase individuals).

By blase do you mean really damned stupid?

"whenever skies get dark" in other places, as it says in the article--in the Great Plains towns I've lived in, the sirens went off when the National Weather Service issued a local tornado warning.

They ignore sirens all the time where I live.

"there"s one a block from my work lol..

And they say "test test test" loud as shit---

When there is a warning, or a real bad storm, they'll let the sucker wail a lot--

Then voices will come on - Seek Shelter -

in my life time, so far.

Hearing the siren all you have to do is check out the nearest window to see what the clouds are doing. But I doubt anyone who has seen or been around a real tornado would ignore the warning unless it is overused to the point of meaninglessness.

I also lived in Austin, and the weather alert radios there go of if there is a wind of over 10 miles an hour or a heavy rain, year round. So yeah, to get some peace and some sleep, I ditched the alert radio.

Austin is not in tornado alley, Wichita Falls is, Austin abuses its alert system Wichita Falls by and large doesn't, and that makes people either ignore or pay attention.

the general population to ignore them when they're real.

It's a fine line, but live and learn. From now on, I'll
be willing to bet, they're not ignored in the Joplin
area in the future.

I wish those affected only the best.

As a lifelong resident of tornado country, I can report literally dozens of times when people stood outside watching the storm instead of taking shelter.

I live in Alabama which is a tornado alley (see: Tuscaloosa, 4/27/2011). We get those all the time. The problem is that the sirens go off if a tornado is spotted in a county. The counties are huge and most tornados are not F5s so are very directed and short term events. You tend to begin ignoring them and looking outside for any signs of trouble before going to your safe place.

If the siren system could become more directed it would definitely help.

However, an EF0 or EF1 can kill you. Especially at night, and because I'm a weather person and look at radar and stuff...I always take tornado sirens seriously.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/ef-scale.html

The odds of one hitting you are low when the siren is a county based siren. That's my point.

that suggests intentional. The problem has been one of technology, knowledge of tornadoes, and implementation of the warning system. With less technology, knowledge of tornadoes, the tornado warnings have historically be issued per county. These can cover considerable area that arent necessarily under threat. You have entire generations that are used to the sirens/warnings going off and then nothing hits.

As of Oct 2007 the NWS began issuing them based on the path of the storm (storm specific warnings) with only portions of counties warned when possible. However, we are still seeing a tendency to warn an entire county in various areas.

The other problem is tornadoes themselves. They are often unpredictable. They can be violent aggressive beasts one second and then just disappear the next and then reform miles down the way. This also leads to warns that never end up leading to tornadoes affecting people.

A complacency can exist among the people. Especially in areas that often get the type of weather that lend itself to tornadoes.

In some counties, the sirens go off if a severe thunderstorm warning is issued while a tornado watch is in effect. Given that a lot of people don't know the difference between a watch and a warning in the first place, I can see where confusion -- and then complacency -- can happen. I've never understood such a policy because the more the sirens go off, the less sensitized the public is to heed them.

Not only is it an issue of complacency its also one of confusion.

Our town sets the sirens off for three specific reasons:

1. When the fire department is paged -up and down siren- relatively rare so people for the most part don't complain.
2. Tornadoes -steady tone-
3. Nuclear War (yeah right, like we'd be notified before they exploded). -steady tone-


For the most part people around here pay attention to them and we don't have lots of tornadoes. Locally our problem is either NEW people to town don't know what the heck they mean...or the new AND established residents don't know that tornadoes have a different sound than the routine fire calls.

County wide warning are generally a bad idea unless the county is really small...mostly the issue here is either policy but most likely technology. The only way to have smaller 'zones' for alerting is to either have separate systems for each zone OR to have a two way radio system on your siren which involves putting a more expensive radio at the siren site. Either way its expensive. Most communities don't want to pay to even HAVE sirens let alone the modern ones that work better. That is, until AFTER they were needed. Figures.

Not only should there be IMHO a national standard for WHEN a tornado siren is set off but also for what it sounds like. I know this will NEVER happen because local agencies like to keep tradition, but the only way to make sure these alerts are taken seriously is to not only cut back on over usage but to standardize what the hell they mean!

warning in the neighboring county. I guess I would rather them be too cautious rather than not cautious enough. But because the alert radius is so wide, for us it was always just a notice to turn on the TV or get on the internet and take a close look at the radar, to see where the storm really was and where its projected path was. We decided based on that data whether and when to head to the basement.

The scarier thing to me is that often the volume of the sirens is inadequate. During the Good Friday tornadoes in St. Louis this year, we were eating dinner at a restaurant less than half a mile from where a tornado was taking out homes left and right as it headed toward the airport. We had NO idea. No one inside the restaurant could hear the sirens - no staff had an eye on the weather - everyone was clueless. If that storm's path had been slightly different, that was easily 75-100 people who would've been totally caught off-guard, with probable high injuries or fatalities.