Lloyd Colston, Emergency Management Director for the City of Altus captured these shots of a tornado near Hammon, OK today with his Blackberry. Lloyd’s account of the day is posted below in the comments. Thank you Lloyd for sharing this with us.
Hammon tornado in Roger Mills County
Hammon tornado in Roger Mills County
Well, the day’s event started with breakfast of coffee, poptart, and bagel and off to a FEMA meeting in Lawton.
OH … you want more about the tornado and less about the DAY.
OK … Custer County EM Mike Galloway and I are meeting for coffee when, first we spotted the wall cloud from the Interstate. We piled into one vehicle, in order to observe good SKYWARN spotter practice. There was a tornado reported west of Elk City that was of concern to us.
Frequently, I’d turn my head to look over the shoulder (a Rick Smith “put your head on a swivel”). Using Blackberry, I took pictures of the storm and Tweeted or posted to Facebook.
Lessons learned:
1. Blackberry does not let you talk and tweet at the same time. Therefore, the phone calls to NWS were detailed and short. The NWS staff were very professional and appeared eager to hear from us.
2. Even after the tornado hit Hammon, Mike’s wife called him to give concern about Elk City storm. The INWS product on the Blackberry helped quite a bit.
3. Know your local NWS phone number, the 800 number, or how to Tweet your report to the BETA twitter account. Photos and blogs are nice. Lives will be better saved if local emergency managers get a call AND NWS gets the info. Mike’s on his phone calling local resources to alert them to the storm. I focussed on calling NWS. After all, they OWN the all-hazards weather radio system. For the emergency manager, the LOCAL phone number is the best.
4. No lives reported lost in this storm. The storm had about 15 minutes lead time. The storm was not fast moving. Even the County Commissioner reported he had time to get in a fraidy hole. Early, accurate warning is the key to this. GOOD job to NWS for their role in this. Good job to the media that was reinforcing the “take cover” message while it was happening.
5. Situational awareness is important to field spotter units. The Tom-Tom helps you know where you are and what cross street you are passing. NWS will want to know where you are when you call. “I don’t know” (Okie translation “Awh dunOH”) is NOT an acceptable answer.
Hope that helps.
73
What kind of poptart was it?
It was cherry. I also forgot the banana and the trip to Oklahoma City for the Fire Department radios.
Time for the obligatory commercial:
1. Make a Plan
2. Build a kit that supports the Plan… See More
3. Practice the Plan
4. Help others with their Plan
http://www.ready.gov
first legit storms of the year and it produced a tornado, think we’re in for a strong storm season? Hit me up on facebook if y’all have a page, I’m really intersted in weather.
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