Severe weather prompts look into city's plan

Nevada Daily Mail

Severe weather prompted the city's tornado sirens to sound Saturday around 11 p.m. The National Weather Service had reported a funnel cloud near Redfield, Kan., that was headed east at 45 miles per hour.

Large hail was reported near Richards and high winds and golf-ball sized hail were reported at Uniontown, Kan., and near Fort Scott.

An alert Sunday evening was the result of an unexplained glitch and the sirens were quickly silenced.

"At this point we just don't know why they sounded," Norman Turner, Chief of Communications said.

As soon as the weather service called the alert Saturday night the sirens sounded warning Nevada residents of the approaching storm. The Nevada water treatment plant was at capacity serving as a shelter for area residents who felt their residences were not safe during a tornado.

Carol Branham, Nevada Parks and Recreation director, was on hand to organize the city's response under the direction of Gary Herstein and Norman Turner.

"The water treatment technician was there but his job is to run the equipment and the plan doesn't call for him to help out," Branham said. "People coming in were so scared they would pull their cars up in the driveway and just turn them off and come inside. The driveway was completely blocked."

Branham said a local church was seeking to help out by opening up space during bad weather.

"They would be separate from the city response," Branham said. "But we welcome their help. The water plant was at capacity and if we got a larger response we just wouldn't be able to fit everyone in."

Branham said that the city would discuss the severe weather plan and might make some adjustments to better serve the community.

"This is just the start of the storm season," Branham said. "We'll look at what happened and improve the response."