NWS Service Assessment issued on SE Tornadoes in March

[TVS]

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/assessments/pdfs/AL-GA_tornadoes07.pdf

Critical of radio stations in Americus, GA for being automated in the night and not getting warnings on the air:

"The Georgia Emergency Managment Office officially stated that the lack of EAS alerts (during the late evening and early morning when no one was on duty) on local radio stations had a negative impact on the situational awareness of the residents of Americus, Georgia."

Also, information on the Enterprise tornado and IEM Chat.

(I was monitoring four IEM Chat rooms during the event and thought the communication between the NWS and TV mets/EM was incredible.)

[SevereClear]

Very Interesting... I was sent back to AL following the storm to help my old station, WSFA, get some rest... I'll never forget the images of Enterprise High School.

[MOCR]

A very good read- thanks for the post. Lots of good info there regarding LSRs and their shortcomings. IEM chat was also discussed at length and very positive results obtained from its use.

As to EAS- well it's been a mess for awhile. Sadly, broadcast radio stations are not required by law to relay NWS alerts, but why they wouldn't is still a mystery to me. The stale excuse "we're unattended at night" is lame, especially when 2 storm-related fatalities were involved DESPITE a 30 MINUTE LEAD TIME.

EVERY EAS UNIT certified by the FCC is required to auto-forward an EAN from the White House, and all will also do the same for NWS alerts IF PROPERLY PROGRAMMED TO. I'd be very interested in finding out if the GA state EAS plan calls for the Americus stations to tune to an NWR transmitter nearby. Most every state does I think- we certainly do here in Texas.

Still, the NWS telling the FCC what to do is like the NTSB telling the FAA what to do- it looks good in the press, but is quite useless in the end.

Also impressive were the lead times- 13+ minutes or better on average...

[Icecool]

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/assessments/pdfs/AL-GA_tornadoes07.pdf

Critical of radio stations in Americus, GA for being automated in the night and not getting warnings on the air:

"The Georgia Emergency Managment Office officially stated that the lack of EAS alerts (during the late evening and early morning when no one was on duty) on local radio stations had a negative impact on the situational awareness of the residents of Americus, Georgia."

Also, information on the Enterprise tornado and IEM Chat.

(I was monitoring four IEM Chat rooms during the event and thought the communication between the NWS and TV mets/EM was incredible.)

I must say I'm really proud to be working with the BMX and TAE offices in the chat room. Their level of support for IEM Chat and their willingness to communicate through IEM really made March 1 much easier. I think that helped with storm lead times. Many times our station was on-air before a warning was issued because we knew it was coming.

I'm also glad the report finally put a "stamp of approval" on the actions of school administrators of Enterprise High School that day. There really wasn't anything anyone could do to make the situation turn out any better. There had been quite a bit of discussion on the topic following the storm.

[rdale]

I'm also glad the report finally put a "stamp of approval" on the actions of school administrators of Enterprise High School that day.

I scanned through it again - but I don't see where it discussed the school situation in too much detail... They originally claimed they dismissed some students early during a tornado warning, and I don't consider that a good thing (nor can I imagine NWS would support that?)

[Icecool]

I scanned through it again - but I don't see where it discussed the school situation in too much detail... They originally claimed they dismissed some students early during a tornado warning, and I don't consider that a good thing (nor can I imagine NWS would support that?)

The schools in Enterprise officially did not release students. Some parents did show up and took students out of class. The school system opted to keep students in schools as the city was under 3 consecutive tornado warnings for 3 separate supercells from about 10:30am - 1:30pm that afternoon.

[rdale]

Thanks for clarifying - that makes more sense (and that I can agree with their decision.) Hopefully polygon warnings will reduce that time in the future, but I doubt it.