FORT SILL, Okla. (Jan. 26, 2017) -- As temperatures start to get warmer, the increase for potential severe weather rises as well.
Members of the Lawton-Fort Sill community gathered in Snow Hall's Kerwin Auditorium, Jan. 11, to learn how best to prepare for the threat of a severe weather emergency. This was the second tornado seminar on Fort Sill to help prepare the installation for emergency management of a significant weather event.
The Fort Sill Emergency Management Office wants to make sure residents stay safe. Matthew Noble, a plans and exercise specialist, helped organize the event to encourage awareness about the deadly destruction tornados can cause.
"The safety and security of the Fort Sill community depends on effective response to and recovery from a tornado on the installation," said Noble.
Preparations need to be in place long before the threat of severe weather approaches.
The Emergency Manager from Moore, Okla., knows this firsthand. During his tenure with the City of Moore, Gayland Kitch has had extensive experience with twisters. On average, Moore gets hit with a tornado once every five years. Most recently, a tornado tore through Moore in 2013. The devastating storm destroyed nearly everything in its path and was the fifth in as many years to hit the city that stretches 25 square miles.
Thirteen thousand homes were destroyed, causing almost $2billion in property damage; 24 people died, nine of those children who were attempting to seek shelter inside their school. The tragic deaths of the children who drowned in the basement of Plaza Towers Elementary suggest that at minimum, all schools need to have secure shelters. What's more, this deadly tornado also unfortunately highlighted the many areas of emergency management that were lacking in Moore.
Even though the town is no stranger to tornados, the storm hit much earlier than previous storms. The news and media outlets in Moore did their best to forewarn residents, but it came about four hours sooner than when tornados usually touch down in this small Oklahoma town.
Tornados are measured using the Fujita scale, which was developed by a scientist studying tornados in the 1970s. After the rash of storms in the late 1990s, many meteorologists began to question whether or not the scale was accurate enough to measure storms correctly. So they created the Enhanced Fujita sale, which takes into count not just the size and wind speed of the storm, but also the damage on the ground. The storm that hit Moore in 2013 was an 5EF tornado, the highest the scale measures.
Winds of 316 miles an hour hit the town during the 2013 storm.
"About 800 homes were destroyed, and many of the homes and structures in Moore did not have adequate shelters in place to help keep residents safe," said Kitch.
"What do you do when you have 800 homes literally destroyed? Where do people go? How do you pick the debris up," Kitch asked the assembled crowd. His answer? Be prepared.
"If you have the opportunity to get to a shelter, do it," he urged.
Kitch suggested that his city needed more preparation plans in place. The National Weather Service, headquartered literally due east of Moore in Norman, Oklahoma, had shown a week in advance that the potential for bad weather was on the way, and Kitch and his colleagues were tracking the storm earnestly. Kitch alerted schools and businesses well in advance and the NWS issued a tornado warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down. Even with all that warning, the devastation caused by the tornado was catastrophic.
Though warnings systems that are currently in place are far more advanced than they ever have been, it's important to pay close attention to what's going on outside. The NWS can't always predict with absolute certainty what's going to happen with a forecasted weather event.
For example, post closed Jan. 13 because conditions existed for a potential ice storm. Officials had been tracking the storm and were able to issue warnings well in advance of the approaching weather. Thankfully, the ice storm never materialized, but plans were already in place should something happen. This is the key in helping prevent casualties during weather events.
The NWS does its best to alert the public during potential weather events by sending out alerts to cell phone providers, local news media and social media channels. At Fort Sill, checking the post Facebook page is a good idea as well.
Cara Gluck, a representative from the Oklahoma Incident Management Team (OIMT) was on hand immediately following the destructive tornado in Moore in 2013. OIMT's mission is to "provide qualified All-Hazards Incident Management Teams for the state of Oklahoma and its political subdivisions capable of supporting and assisting in the management of natural and manmade emergencies and disasters."
It is a multi-agency team composed of trained personnel from different departments, organizations, agencies and jurisdictions within the state, activated to support incident management.
Representatives of OIMT assist in the management of major, complex incidents that require a significant number of local, regional, and state resources that extend into multiple operational periods and require a written incident action plan (IAP). The IAP helps to ensure that resources are directed to areas where they are most needed and will be of the best benefit to the community which has been affected.
"We were on the scene for seven days responding to the incident," said Gluck.
During that time the OIMT helped create an IAP to best deal with the issues that Moore was experiencing. Gluck said that this is integral in helping to ensure that emergency response is timely and helps address the areas that are most in need. Because the OIMT is a multi-disciplinary effort, it is best equipped to help the overall needs of the area, rather than addressing specific community concerns. This is key in the first wave of triage following a catastrophic event.
She stressed that preparation is as equally important as organization once a weather event occurs and that weather events are rarely handled by one agency alone.
"We were trying to guide the local jurisdiction into one area," she said, noting that establishing a command post is very important. The OIMT then remained on scene for a week to ensure that the expectations laid out by the city manager of Moore were met. The only way this can happen is if the OIMT has almost full control over the resources available to the community.
"There were thousands of people who came in, and so that was one of the things that we were given the task to do." Organization is key and the OIMT does not respond to any areas without being formally requests. When we are asked to come into a jurisdiction to assist, that's what we're doing. We're not taking over, and we're not there to run the show. We're there to help, in whatever capacity," said Gluck.
"One of the things we were recommending is a unified command. For an incident of this magnitude and with the national significance, a unified command is the preferred approach," said Gluck.
If an incident like this were to occur on post, it would be key for post commanders to work closely with the City of Lawton to help with disaster relief efforts, creating a coordinated response. Gluck suggested that the unity of a command will be a challenge, but it will be integral in ensuring that the disaster is being managed as best as possible.
"Have your eggs in one basket," Gluck urged, to en-sure that accountability is upheld across all of the parties who are responding to the incident.
The information provided by Kitch and Gluck were of value in helping Fort Sill commanders develop action plans for preparing for severe weather. Even though the last documented tornado to hit post was in the late 1990s, it's still important to remain vigilant. It's important for everyone on post to be educated about the severity a tornado poses. Since many of our Soldiers and their family members might be living in "Tornado Alley" for the first time, Fort Sill EMO wants everyone to know the difference between a watch and a warning.
A tornado watch means conditions exist that could lead to a tornado, but these events might or might not happen. A warning means the weather event is happening at that moment and precautions need to be taken immediately. When the NWS issues an alert, the EMO notifies all post employees and sends out an email. If the alert is to signal that a tornado is eminent, the EMO will sound off the Fort Sill siren. The signal is tested every week to ensure that it is in good working order, should the need arise to use it.
As with the tornado in Moore, it's important for Fort Sill residents to seek appropriate shelter during a severe weather event. If you are at home, the NWS advises you move to a central part of the house, away from windows and outside doors. If you can, use a mattress or blankets to help protect yourself from debris. If a tornado siren is going off, don't worry about anything but getting to a safe area, hopefully with a flashlight and a water supply. On post, there are two certified tornado shelters: one at Snow Hall, in the basement, and one at Reynolds Army Health Clinic.
Emergency management officials on post also stress the need for families to develop a plan. This should include how everyone should respond in different settings such as work, home, school, or outside. There are a variety of resources that are available to help with forming a plan at www.redcross.org and www.ready.gov, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's website.
Fort Sill has assigned building managers for each building on post who can provide a copy of the building Emergency Action plan. Practicing the plan is also important because when severe weather strikes, seconds count. Even though a weather alert might be issued when conditions appear calm, weather can change rapidly and become life threatening.
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