What to do if...

If the outdoor warning system is heard at anytime other than scheduled test days, seek shelter and tune in to local radio, television, or your NOAA weather radio for instructions and information.

It is important to remember that any thunderstorm can produce a tornado with little or no warning. When a tornado warning is issued, take the following immediate safety precautions:

In homes or small buildings: Go to a pre-designated safe area such as the basement (if available) or to an interior room on the lowest floor, such as a closet or bathroom away from windows, doors, and outside walls. Upper floors are unsafe. If there is no time to descend, go to a closet, a small room with strong walls, or an inside hallway. Put as many walls as possible between you and the outside. Get under a sturdy protection (heavy table or work bench), cover yourself with some sort of thick padding (mattress, blankets, etc.), and use your arms to cover your head and neck to protect against flying debris.
In schools, hospitals, factories, or shopping centers: Go to interior rooms and halls on the lowest floor. Stay away from glass enclosed places or areas with wide-span roofs such as auditoriums and warehouses. Crouch down and cover your head and neck. Centrally-located stairwells are good shelter.
In high-rise buildings: Go to interior small rooms or halls. Stay away from exterior walls or glassy areas.
In cars: IF POSSIBLE, DRIVE AWAY!  If not, get into a sturdy shelter (building).  As a last resort, you need to make a personal decision whether to ride it out in your car hunched down below the windows with your SEATBELT ON, or to lie flat in the nearest ditch or depression with your hands covering your head. Be alert for flash floods.  It is not recommended to seek shelter under overpasses.
In mobile homes: ABANDON THEM IMMEDIATELY!  Most deaths occur in cars and mobile homes. If you are in a mobile home, leave it and go to a sturdy building providing greater protection. If your mobile home community has a designated shelter, make it your safe place.

Guidelines for Donations and Volunteering in Support of Joplin Tornado Recovery

To help better manage the outpouring of support for Joplin, Missouri tornado survivors, disaster recovery experts have established some simple ways to help, whether volunteering or donating resources. The Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ffer those who are impacted or just wanting to help the following advice:

The easiest way to help is to call 2-1-1 in most areas in Missouri to volunteer time or make a donation.  Cash is the best because it offers voluntary agencies the most flexibility in obtaining the most-needed resources. Confirm what is needed BEFORE taking action! Donate in-kind goods that are specifically requested or needed by recognized organizations. Unsolicited donated goods such as used clothing, miscellaneous household items, and mixed or perishable foodstuffs require helping agencies to redirect valuable resources away from providing services to sort, package, transport, warehouse, and distribute items that may not meet the needs of disaster survivors. Confirm the needs by contacting the voluntary organization of your choice before starting to collect.

Tornado Safety in Johnson County

This past weekend generated severe weather throughout the Midwest with significant damage in both Reading, Kansas, and Joplin, Missouri.  The same system that impacted Reading also came through Johnson County late on Saturday night.  Much like in Reading, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Johnson County that covered a large portion of the county and moved in a northeastern pattern.  Per policy, Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security activated the outdoor warning siren system to notify local residents of Johnson County that there was imminent threat to their safety.

“The Johnson County outdoor warning siren system is intended to be an outdoor warning system,” said Nick Crossley, Director of Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security, “Some citizens can hear the sirens inside their residences and businesses; however, due to improved building techniques as well as atmospheric conditions such as rain, thunder, and lightning, it is often difficult to hear them inside homes and businesses”.

Sirens are primarily intended for outdoor notification.  Johnson County Emergency Management and Homeland Security encourage every home and business owner to have a NOAA All-Hazards alert radio and a plan to respond to weather threats such as tornado warnings.  NOAA All Hazard Radios are designed to notify those persons inside a home or business about impending threats.  Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security also maintains a SMS text alert system called JOCOAlert that is available for free to local citizens.

“Weather radios and text notification are extremely important parts of Johnson County’s emergency public notification strategy”, continued Crossley, “Since sirens provide no information on the type of threat or exact location of potential danger.”  Once a warning is heard, citizens and businesses should seek shelter and then determine the location and type of threat.  This will allow them to take appropriate actions to protect themselves, their families or their employees and customers.

Johnson County activates the Outdoor Warning System for one or more of the following reasons: (1) a tornado warning declared by the National Weather Service, (2) A tornado spotted by a trained weather spotter, (3) A tornado spotted by a public safety official, and/or (4) Duty officer discretion based on accessed risk.   Johnson County has the capability of activating all of the sirens at once or by activating one or more of five established siren zones. All sirens are sounded unless the threat is clearly confined to an individual zone (or zones). 

People can subscribe to the JOCOAlert text notification system by texting “Follow JOCOAlert” to 40404.

For more information on the Johnson County Outdoor Warning Siren system, NOAA All-Hazard alert radios, or the JOCOAlert system, visit www.jocoem.org .