Weather Alerts Today

The weather is creating news today.  A powerful low pressure front is pushing through towards the Northeast from the Mississippi Valley, hitting the warm temperatures we’ve had this week, and creating some fierce thunderstorms and spawning tornadoes in Tennessee and Kentucky this morning.  We’ve sent a weather alert to our staff reminding everyone of what our procedures are for responding to a tornado warning or sighting in our area:

• Tornado warning:  announce the warning is in effect, ask staff and patrons to move away from windows and exterior doors
• Tornado sighted in the area:  announce we are initiating Shelter-In-Place, and that everyone should take shelter on our basement level in the hallway.  (Best shelter from a tornado:  as low in the building as possible, as close to the center of the building as possible)

In addition to monitoring the weather via computers, we have an All-Hazards radio that will issue an alarm in the event of an official alert.  So far, we have not had to use it, but today it may come in handy.

We hope our colleagues to the west of us have fared well today.  Stay in touch!

Preparing for Tornado Season

Winter is a good time to begin preparing for tornado season. Do you live and work in an area which has experienced tornadoes? If so, what’s your plan for alerting patrons that a tornado warning has been issued for your area? What are the safest places in your building? What’s your tornado safety plan for your home?

Unless you’ve been in a tornado, it’s hard to imagine its destructive powers. On May 13, 2000, my family and I sat in our Honda Civic at a local high school parking lot while an F1 tornado went over us. We had been out for ice cream and had no idea of the possibility of a tornado. In fact, we were parked in the parking lot because I wanted to get a good look at some spectacular storm cloud formations coming in from the southwest. After striking the high school, the tornado then took northeasterly track right over our house, resulting in several downed trees. An F1 tornado is quite low on the Fujita scale, however, the winds from the tornado, estimated at 80 to 100 mph, tore off roofing from the high school and sent metal barrels tumbling past our car. Did it sound like a train? Not this one. However, our car shook violently and visibility was reduced to almost nothing due to the intensity of the rain. Our girls, age 7 and 5 at the time, sat screaming in the back seat through the whole event, which probably lasted less than a minute. My wife and I, greatly concerned, kept assuring them that everything was going to be fine. Everything did turn out to be fine, and we all now have a much greater respect for tornadoes.

The map below is from data provided by the National Climatic Data Center.

Major Tornadoes of 2007

For a list of 2007 tornadoes that resulted in fatalities, check out this site from NOAA. Some of the locations may surprise you. Also, check out these sobering aerial photographs of the aftermath of the tornado that struck Greensburg, Kansas, on May 4, 2007.

Kiowa County Memorial Hospital

According to CNN, the Kiowa County Memorial Hospital received considerable damage on Friday from the tornado that struck Greensburg, Kansas.  Fortunately, the 30 people trapped in the hospital have been rescued with only minor injuries.

Sumter Regional Hospital Video

Here’s a nice 5-minute video of the recovery efforts at Sumter Regional Hospital.  Note the segment on the importance of staff being able to respond to an emergency.

Sumter Regional Hospital Library Update

Here’s an update on the library at Sumter Regional Hospital:

• The print collection has been saved and packed away.
• The hospital budget will likely be tight, so updates of some of the textbooks over the next few years are unlikely.
• The librarian has moved into a modular building behind the hospital, with some shelving, filing cabinets, and a small desk.  She’s trying to figure out where all the print journals are going to accumulate.
• The librarian is going to attempt to get a computer set up in the temporary hospital for the doctors and staff to us.

Click here for additional information about Sumter Regional Hospital.

Tornado Activity Map

Click on the thumbnail below to see a map of tornado activity in the United States from 1950 to 1998.

Tornado Protection

Click here for a FEMA publication that deals with selecting refuge areas in buildings.  Here’s a description of the booklet pulled from the site:

This booklet presents case studies of three schools that were struck by tornadoes: Xenia Senior High School in Xenia, Ohio; St. Augustine Elementary School in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Kelly Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, which were struck on April 3, 1974; May 13, 1980; and May 3, 1999, respectively. The resulting damage to these schools was examined by teams of structural engineers, building scientists, engineering and architectural faculties, building administrators, and representatives of the architectural firms that designed the buildings.

From these and other examinations, guidance has been developed for selecting the safest areas in existing buildings - areas that may offer protection if a tornado strikes - referred to in this booklet as the best available refuge areas. The guidance presented in this booklet is intended primarily to help building administrators, architects, and engineers select the best available refuge areas in existing schools. Building administrators, architects, and engineers are encouraged to apply this guidance so that the number of injuries and deaths will be minimized if a tornado strikes an occupied school.

Tornado Preparedness Day

Governor Timothy Kaine has declared today Tornado Preparedness Day in Virginia.  Click here for a description of today’s state-wide drill.

Sumter Regional Hospital

Here’s the latest news from the Sumter Regional Hospital disaster response website.  Click here for additional news reports about the hospital.