The National Weather Service said Monday that a "long-track
supercell thunderstorm crossed a nearly 100 mile portion of central
Georgia." Reports
of damage "consistent with tornadoes" were received from counties along
the path of the storm ... Apparently, there was no significant damage
in DeKalb County, but there was damage near here. [AJC] As it turned out, the closest confirmed tornadoes were in Prattville, AL and near the GA line with the FL panhandle [AP].
Many of us noticed heard the siren(s) Sunday afternoon, warning us of a possible tornado.
This blogger was only two blocks from Fire Station #1 on Trinity, and thus heard it clearly. Could you hear it where you were? Does the city have multiple sirens? Did Avondale people here Decatur's siren(s) or the one at the Avondale FD?
Decatur Metro pondered if the new CodeRed reverse 911 notification system should have been used.
One commenter at DM thinks it's not a good idea to call people when there's lightning in the area. [That logic would rule out many emergencies which are caused by thunderstorms accompanied by lightning. If a lightning storm has created a dangerous condition in my neighborhood, I'd like to take my chances with answering the phone to find out.]
He also says the sirens are intended only to get the attention of people outside, under the assumption those inside will be watching weather updates on TV or listening to the radio. [That assumes everyone has their TV or radio on all the time, which is not true for many this blogger knows.]
What inDECATUR would like to see is a comment from a city official or employee explaining the thinking in not using it.
So far, Decatur's CodeRed system has been used to notify us of special holiday trash collection schedules [as part of a test] and to not notify us of a possible tornado. We're now not quite sure when it will and will not be used, and whether we should count on it.
As of this posting, no explanation/clarification can be found at the City website, and no e-mail has been received.
optional opinionaton in the continuation
__________
If you don't have a battery powered and/or hand-cranked-generator NOAA radio [when an emergency occurs, the National Weather Service sends out a special tone, and this causes the NOAA radio to sound an alert and play the emergency message], get one now, while you're thinking about it. If the power goes out, and Decatur hasn't called beforehand, we now know you can't assume Decatur would have called if there were a problem, and you'll be just guessing what's going on without one, and that's a discomforting condition to be in. [This blogger has a 1KW generator, just enough to run a TV, radio, computer, and a few lights.]
Just in case Decatur does decide to call,
it's a good idea to register your cell phone. There's no risk in
answering it, as far as this blogger knows.
Decatur avoided a tornado again, and as best I can tell from internet research, has never had one confirmed (although it has had winds approaching tornado strength which have done damage.
