Severe Weather Preparedness Week

April 22-28 is National Severe Weather Preparedness Week.

April 22-28 is Severe Weather Preparedness Week and it's a perfect time to think about the coming warm months and the unpredictable weather. In southern Illinois, tornadoes have already caused damage and killed eight people during February and March.

 

Take this week to go over your emergency preparedness plan for severe weather. According to FEMA's ready.gov website, this is the perfect time to make plans about where and how to take shelter in the event of a tornado or other severe weather.

The Problem

Last Friday, administrators in Henryville, IN, released students from school early to get them home before the storm.  Several buses were caught by the storm, with driver needing to get their kids inside before the tornado struck.  One driver knew they wouldn't make it, and returned to the school.  Everyone on the bus got inside the school right before the tornado struck.  The bus ended up a couple of hundred feet away, across the highway, in a brick building.

Reportedly in New Castle, IN, similar action was taken by school administrators there to get kids into the cars and buses before a storm hit.  The word through the grapevine is that there are some who are thinking this is the new way to go.

This is the problem.

Now, how does this get addressed?  We shall see.

A post from the Campus Safety Magazine Blog that exemplifies the problem.
http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/Blog/Campus-Command-Post/Story/2012/01/Don-t-Use-Hallways-As-Tornado-Shelters.aspx