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Editorial
What if a twister were on its way
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
It seems like yesterday we were getting used to driving on icy winter streets, but now it's time to think about another weather hazard -- summer storms.
This is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Nebraska, and the Goodland, Kansas, National Weather Service office will issue a test tornado warning for our area at 10:40 a.m. CDT Wednesday.
The drill is designed to make sure Nebraskans can adequately receive a tornado warning and practice taking whatever steps would be necessary to stay safe in the event of a real tornado.
The warning will come through the growing list of communication channels available for delivering severe-weather notices -- commercial and Weather Radio, Internet and text messaging on cell phones.
The warning channels were much more limited 25 years ago on June 15, 1990, when one of the most memorable tornadoes in recent history skirted Stratton, Trenton, Culbertson and McCook. A mile or two farther south, and the destruction and injuries could have been devastating for our communities.
As it was, more than 40 rural homes were destroyed and millions of dollars of damage was done to other structures, crops, vehicles and power poles. One elderly woman suffered a shoulder injury as a result of the storm.
The tornado picked up water from Swanson Lake and left up to two inches of mud caked on the southwest sides of buildings and trees in Hitchcock County.
You can read details of the storm here, a page of radar images, photos and other information assembled by the Goodland NWS office.
McCook wasn't so lucky 87 years ago, in 1928, when a twister touched down in town at 8:15 p.m. June 11.
About a thousand people were left homeless when the tornado mowed a path, five or six blocks wide, starting at the 700 block of West Fourth and extending to the canyon on the city's north edge. Dozens of automobiles were tossed around the streets as if they were toys.
You can read Walt Sehnert's account of the storm here.
For more weather safety tips of all kinds, visit here.
Tornadoes have been relatively rare in the 25 years since the 1990 storm, but when we hear about the tornado drill Wednesday, let's think about what we would do if we heard one was on its way.