Storms remind all to plan ahead, seek shelter

FORT SILL, Okla. May 12, 2016 -- Editor's note: Even though The Fort Sill Tribune recently published a full page of do's and don'ts during tornado season, more information is needed. Individual responsibility for staying safe is critical in situations, like those people on post experienced two weeks ago. This article is part of a series to help provide insight into what people can all do at home and work, and what the post installation and the weather services do to keep those who work and live in Southwest Oklahoma be as safe as possible in unpredictable hazards.

When a tornado warning alert sounded on phones all across Fort Sill the afternoon of April 29, many well-laid plans went to hell in a handbasket. Panicked parents showed up at post day-care facilities and Freedom Elementary to get their children. Others tried to drive off-post, many toward the tornado in the Elgin area. Civilians and Soldiers alike went outside to take a look instead of heading toward the nearest basement.

All of those things were the wrong thing to do, said the Fort Sill garrison commander and the emergency operations center personnel.

"When a warning is issued, and the sirens sound, people should not move anywhere. Seek shelter where you are," said Steve Gluck, the post's emergency manager. "We do not want people in the roads seeking shelter. They put themselves and others in harm's way by doing that."

Col. Glenn Waters, Fort Sill Garrison commander, said, "The problem is we have new people coming in all the time who have no experience with tornadoes and they're not clear what they should and shouldn't be doing."

Individual preparation and weather awareness is the key to doing the right thing when a tornado warning alert is issued. "When you hear a tornado watch (as opposed to a warning) or thunderstorm during this time of year, you have to have your ear on the weather channel," said Waters.

"We actually start looking at this stuff 96 hours out," said Chris Pease, director of the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security.

Even with the most sophisticated meteorology knowledge, forecasts can be wrong. Witness what happened on Mother's Day, May 8. Pease said the rainfall amount was predicted to be fractional, but in downtown Lawton 1.8 inches fell in a very short time. Roads were flooded, prompting water rescues, and deep water ruined cars in the Central Mall's parking lot.

As further proof of Mother Nature's whims, dire predictions of severe storms April 26 that had Fort Sill employees dismissed that afternoon resulted in little other than a heavy downpour.

"You use the resources you have available to make the best decisions you can at the time," said Pease.

Here's what you should do.

Everyone -- Soldiers, civilians, and families alike -- should actively monitor the weather on their computers, televisions, radios, and smart phone apps. While a tornado watch may cover a span of eight to 12 hours, a tornado warning can come almost as a surprise even when one is actively monitoring.

"In a warning situation you only get 13 to 15 minutes lead time at most," said Gluck.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center sends out the tornado warning to all emergency and media outlets, which may include a cell phone provider's loud alert tone on subscriber's phones. It does not necessarily mean a tornado has been sighted, but that the weather conditions monitored on radar and observed by storm spotters meet certain atmospheric criteria: wind shear, rotating cloud formations, super cell development among them. The potential for the formation of a tornado is immediate. And since a tornado's direction of travel can be unpredictable, areas within a certain radius are included in the warning.

Have a plan for yourself and your family. "It should be muscle memory," said Waters. "(Everyone) should rehearse it and practice it with themselves and their kids. Practice at home and the workplace where you're going to go (for shelter)," he said. "Everybody should have their go-bag (of emergency supplies). They should be in their houses. Most of our newer facilities on post have tornado rooms. Some of the older quarters have basements."

The Department of Defense has mandated that every building have an emergency action plan. Building managers are responsible for implementing them and conducting monthly drills covering tornado, fire, and active shooter situations, said Pease.

"You can walk through where you're going to go, what you're going to do, how you're going to communicate in the building, who's got the (weather) radio," said Pease.

He said Snow Hall and Reynolds Army Community Hospital (RACH) are the certified tornado shelters on post, but any basement is good. "Anything below ground is safer than staying up on the third floor."

Waters added, "The thing you don't want to do is put yourself in harm's way by driving from your facility to RACH or Snow Hall in the middle of a storm."

One situation that many people didn't expect was the gate lockdown that prevented traffic from leaving the post.

"The storm was moving from southwest to northeast," said Waters. "We were working with the city officials and the ODOT (Oklahoma Department of Transportation) officials and the State Troopers to block I-44 so people wouldn't go north on it and drive right into the storm."

Should people on post expect the gates to be closed in a similar situation in the future?

"Yes," answered Waters. "Maybe some of our actions are a little bit more aggressive than some other emergency services in the area."

Safety of the gate guards is also important and there are tornado shelters at each gate.

Tornado sirens will sound to warn people who are outside to take cover, but they're not designed to be heard inside buildings, said Pease.

"The inside (warning) is you watching the news, the radio, the (command-disseminated) email, being on AtHoc," said Waters.

AtHoc is enabled on all government computers, and civilians and Soldiers alike can add their contact information to be notified in case of severe weather or an emergency incident. Waters said AtHoc is extremely valuable to Soldiers in the field or for outdoor sports events.

"Thunderstorms can turn into a tornado pretty quickly," he emphasized. "We don't want people in harm's way when we identify lightning five to seven nautical miles away."

Soldiers training in the field have protocols to follow as well, such as finding a low area to hide in during a tornado, or staying away from tall trees or metal objects and disconnecting the radios during lightning.

"It starts with the individual response whether you're at home, at work, or out in the field," said Pease.

Waters acknowledges that many on post were frustrated by the response during the April 29 tornado warning.

"Every year one-third of our military leaves, and a good part of our civilian workforce turns over," he said. "It's amazing how many phone calls I get from people just not being attuned to what's going on around them, then they try to blame other people for putting themselves in that spot. You have to have some kind of responsibility for yourself and your surroundings."