Coralville prepared for chance of severe weather during RAGBRAI stop

The chance that thousands of RAGBRAI cyclists scheduled to set up camp in Coralville on Friday will be greeted with rain showers and thunderstorms is at 40 percent right now, and local authorities have a detailed “emergency operations plan” should those storms produce a thunderstorm watch or warning.

“That is a huge concern of ours,” said Coralville police Lt. Shane Kron. “We want everyone to ride out of here safely, and that is the one unforeseeable, uncontrollable thing.”

Kron, who wrote this year's emergency plan, said KCRG has agreed to monitor the weather closely Friday and lay out the possibilities for authorities working RAGBRAI in Coralville.

“We will be in constant contact with them,” Kron said. “We will have a good idea if severe weather is a potential or not.”

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service's Friday forecast for Coralville showed a mostly cloudy day with a 40 percent chance for showers and thunderstorms. The chance for precipitation is greater on Thursday at 60 percent, with some of the storms expected to produce heavy rain, according to the weather bureau.

If the National Weather Service issues a watch on Friday – meaning conditions are favorable for the formation of severe weather – details of the alert will be dispatched to authorities, officials and volunteers working the event, according to Kron. Anyone responsible for opening one of the nine designated shelters will go to their site and prepare to open, if necessary.

MORE INFORMATION:

MORE INFORMATION:

• Coralville's RAGBRAI page
• Official RAGBRAI page

Should a watch turn to a warning, Kron said, volunteers will open shelters, and officers will park their squad cars in front of the shelters with lights activated.

Other officers will spread out through the campgrounds and venues broadcasting the nature of the warning and instructing people to move to a shelter using the public address systems on their vehicles, Kron said.

If such an event happens during the 8 p.m. .38 Special concert at the Town Center Parking Ramp, Kron said, everyone will be funneled to the bottom level of the ramp, which is one of the designated shelters.

“If it happened in the middle of the night, we would have to scramble a little more,” he said. “But we will get everyone inside somewhere.”

Tornadoes, lightning, hail, high winds and flash flooding could trigger a storm warning.

“We will hit the sirens and wake folks up,” Kron said. “We will get them moving. We want everyone to come out of here safe.”

Authorities will rely on the community's emergency warning sirens to alert riders who are not sleeping in one of the city's designated campsites. Part of being a host family, even if the commitment was to let someone sleep in the yard rather than the house, would be to provide shelter in the case of an emergency, according to Kron.

“We are really concerned about those people who are out camping and exposed,” Kron said. “But that's the nice thing about RAGBRAI. We don't have to worry about people chipping in.”

This year's emergency plan is somewhat different than the plan in place the last time Coralville hosted RAGBRAI in 2006, Kron said. The city has designated more and different emergency shelters this year, according to Kron.

An outdoor portable speaker system was to be used in the case of an emergency five years ago to alert all the campgrounds.

“We realized it would have been hard to make that work, and we would rather dispatch people into those areas,” Kron said.

So far on this year's seven-day bicycle ride across Iowa, heat seems to be the biggest weather-related concern.

“Drink plenty of water and take frequent breaks. There will be no relief tonight,” according to a Tuesday afternoon post on the RAGBRAI XXXIX Facebook page.

Kron said he hopes Tuesday's heat is as bad as it gets and all his emergency weather plans are for naught.

“If none of this is ever used, that's perfect,” he said.

Emergency shelter sites

• Northwest Junior High,
• Coralville Kirkwood Elementary, 1401 9
• Coralville Recreation Center, 1506 8
• Coralville City Hall, 1512 7
• Coralville Police Department, 1503 5
• Coralville Library, 1401 5
• Coralville Library parking ramp, lower level, 1401 5
• Coralville Performing Arts Center, 1301 5
• Coralville Central Elementary, 501 6

• Northwest Junior High, 1507 8

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• Coralville Kirkwood Elementary, 1401 9

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• Coralville Recreation Center, 1506 8

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• Coralville City Hall, 1512 7

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• Coralville Police Department, 1503 5

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• Coralville Library, 1401 5

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• Coralville Library parking ramp, lower level, 1401 5

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• Coralville Performing Arts Center, 1301 5

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• Coralville Central Elementary, 501 6

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