Oklahoma, sirens and shaking complacency

The smashed houses now on an endless cable TV loop are a lot like the ones that line my neighborhood streets in north Marion. The flattened schools look a lot like the one my kids attend. It would be just as heartbreaking and awful anywhere, but the familiarity of both the setting and the risk give it an added sharpness.

What if, on some mean spring day, all hell busts loose over our corner of the world? Heavens forbid.

We know full well it is an exceedingly remote possibility, although it's tough to tell that to residents of shattered Moore, Okla., where and even stronger killer storm tore through in 1999. But of all the cities, towns, additions, subdivisions, glens, ridges, townes, prairies and villas in the wide expanses of middle America, the chances of mine or yours getting hit is downright microscopic. Oklahoma and Iowa are not the same, tornado-wise. At least that's what I've been telling my kids, repeatedly, since Monday afternoon.

(Although our violent tornado tally is closer to Oklahoma than I thought. A striking map tracking U.S. tornadoes over time can be found here.)

I've also been telling them that when the sky darkens, the sirens blow and your teachers tell you to take shelter, you do so quickly and without a word. No questions. No complaining. No hesitation. You just fall in line and do what you're told as fast as you can.

Monday's disaster puts a fresh coat of relevance on Erin Jordan's Sunday "Shelter from the Storm" project:

Federal, state and local governments are spending $855,000 this year to add to Iowa's network of outdoor warning sirens.

But as fewer Iowans work outside and nearly 90 percent of homes have central air, sealing up windows in the summer, some emergency managers wonder whether outdoor sirens are a relic of Iowa's rural past.

"Our homes and our lifestyles have changed," said Mike Ryan, emergency management agency coordinator for Delaware County. "The sirens are costly to install and maintain. It's kind of a feel-good measure."

Emergency managers have long preached that sirens are not intended for indoor warning. Weather radios, television and the Internet provide better protection inside. More people are signing up for text or email weather alerts, but the future may be cellphone broadcasts using GPS to locate people in the path of the storm.

The Oklahoma City metro, including Moore, have an extensive system of outdoor sirens:

The Oklahoma City siren system, a network of 181 emergency warning sirens, was state-of-the-art when it went online in April, 2002. It cost $4.5 million to install the new system, which replaced the cold war-era sirens that covered only the most densely populated parts of the city.

The sirens sound once the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, and they serve as a signal to turn on a television or radio to get more detailed information about the storm and instructions on how to seek shelter.

The sirens are spread across three counties around Oklahoma City, including the county Moore is located in, according to the city's website. Moore itself has 36 sirens in its Outdoor Warning System, many of them near schools:

Moore residents got about 16 minutes' warning before the tornado hit, which undoubtedly saved lives. I think sirens are still an important piece of a good, broader warning system, alongside media alerts, weather radios, text messaging, phone calls and whatever else you can come up with.

Multiple warning methods increase the chances that people get warned. Then they have to know what those warnings actually mean.

That's one of the issues Jordan highlights in her report, inconsistent policies on when to blow sirens:

Among the 29 counties surveyed by The Gazette, 25 explained what criteria they use for sounding the alarm. Ten counties sound sirens for spotted tornadoes or NWS tornado warnings. Nine other counties - including Linn, Blackhawk, Scott and Johnson - also trigger sirens for winds over 70 mph.

A subset of the second group also sounds sirens for golf ball-sized hail.

Winneshiek County sounds sirens for 50 mph or stronger winds. Fayette, Mahaska, Henry, Jackson and Wapello counties don't have countywide policies.

Grundy County, which has a mix of city and county control of sirens, sounds an "all clear" when the tornado event is passed, officials said. Bremer County officials issue an "all clear" recorded message in Waverly, but do not sound the sirens at that time.

Inconsistent policies statewide can be risky, weather experts said.

It seems like it would be a good idea to bring some consistency to these decisions, maybe at the state level, maybe regionally, and then get the message out loud and clear on what it means, exactly, when you hear a storm siren. A low-threat threshold, like a 50 mph wind, sounds like a bad idea. So do confusing "all clear" blasts. When sirens blow, they should blow because a very serious threat exists. Find shelter and more information.

Personally, I think it should be a real tornado warning or no siren, but I also understand the threat posed by high winds to people caught outside.

Tragedies like the one Monday remind me to be less complacent about this stuff. Like any typical heartlander, I tend to take weather warnings with a grain of salt. Many of us roll our eyes at the dire hyperbole that sometimes gets slung around severe weather coverage. Ooh, the sky is dark, it's windy, how unusual. My inclination is to go outside and watch instead of going inside to hide.

I caught plenty of heck from readers a few years back when I chided folks for getting so upset about having TV shows interrupted by weather warnings.

My dad talks about a guy he knew who used to dismiss warnings by saying, "If God wants to get me, he'll know where to find me." One night, as a roaring tornado passed close to his house, he nearly knocked his wife down as he shoved past her scrambling down the basement stairs.

Sure, it's unlikely. But, someday, it could get real in a hurry. Do you know exactly what you'll do when it happens? Exactly what you'll grab and where you'll go?

I've given it some thought. I have some ideas. But I have to admit, upon further review, that I do not know, exactly, what we'll do when all we have are a few minutes to do it. So that's got to change.

Here are some links to preparedness ideas for homes and schools.