Heed the call

Rural Cooperatives, May-June, 2007 by Dan Campbell

In an average year, 1,200 tornadoes will rip through America. These storms often develop and move at astonishing speed, sometimes allowing those in the path only a few minutes of warning to find shelter. This renders conventional warning systems--such as television and radio--inadequate, since if you're not listening or watching, you won't get the warning in time.

One answer to this problem is a self-activating radio receiver that emits a loud alarm when a storm warning is issued. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Weather Radio All Hazzards System uses special transmitters that broadcast on assigned frequencies and can be picked up by special receivers. The receivers are left in a quiet "standby" mode until a storm signal is issued, which activates the receiver and emits a loud warning signal to everyone in earshot.

The awesome, terrible power of tornadoes--and the importance of early warnings--was once again driven home May 5, when the town of Greensburg, Kan., was virtually wiped off the map by an F-5 tornado, with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour and a funnel that was more than a mile wide. Seeing the photos on the front pages of the morning newspapers the past few days, one can only wonder how most of the 1,400 residents survived (there were about 10 confirmed deaths as of this writing). The only recognizable structure left standing was a grain elevator. The town was otherwise utterly devastated, looking like the target of a wartime saturation bombing.

News accounts indicate that residents received a warning about 20 minutes before the tornado struck, which doubtless was the reason the number of fatalities was not far higher. This underscores the importance of a Newsline item on page 39 of this issue, concerning an announcement Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns made in March about USDA Rural Development awarding $415,000 to extend coverage of the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazzards System.

As of March, the Rural Utilities Program of USDA Rural Development has awarded 92 grants under its Weather Radio Transmitter Grant Program to extend the coverage of the system. These grants cover 100 sites in 26 states and Puerto Rico. Of the grants, 21 have been awarded to electric and telecommunications cooperatives. Co-ops have been major supporters of the program and often make their telecommunications towers available for antenna and transmitter placement. For more details on the program, visit: www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/weather/weatherradio.htm, or call Craig R. Wulf, (202) 720-8427; or e-mail craig.wulf@wdc.usda.gov.

Tragedy hits home

Among the buildings pulverized in Greensburg was the USDA Service Center office, which included USDA Rural Development offices. A day or two after the storm, an e-mail I received related the story of one staff member and her husband who lived about a mile south of Greensburg. "Their two-story home collapsed on them and they were trapped until neighbors could get them out," it said. It then relates how another USDA staffer helped pull "several people out of homes" before returning to find his own home demolished.

Another "storm dispatch" that landed in my e-mail a day after the tornado came from the Kansas Cooperative Council (KCC), which did a quick survey of the tornado's impact on its member co-ops and has been doing an outstanding job marshalling efforts of the co-op community to help the victims. It says: "Southern Plains Co-op, Lewis/Greensburg--Four employees lost homes, along with most of the other residents of the town. The co-op facilities in Greensburg were, for all essential purposes, lost. Co-ops from the surrounding areas are lending personnel and equipment to aid in the relief effort."

The KCC report goes onto list the storm's impact on a number of other area co-ops, adding that, "Our hearts go out to those families who lost loved ones. We encourage co-op members to take the opportunity to act on one of our core cooperative values, commitment to the community, by doing what you can to help at the appropriate time."

KCC has set up a disaster relief fund. For more information contact: Kansas Cooperative Council, PO Box 1747, Hutchinson, Kansas 67504, or leslie@kansasco-op.coop.

--Dan Campbell, Editor