“We were very aware that the weather conditions could develop a tornado. We were monitoring that and we have different means of monitoring that, and we didn’t see a tornado in our area so we didn’t set them off,” he said.
“The big difference between some of the other communities and our weather sirens is we only set ours off if a tornado is in the area.”
He said the confusion may stem from the National Weather Service’s definition of a warning versus the city of Monroe.
The city’s definition of a tornado warning is that a tornado has been sighted on radar from the National Weather Service or reported. There must be or a confirmed touch-down in the area by police or fire personnel, he said. When a warning has been issued, residents should take cover immediately.
The National Weather Service issues a warning when a tornado is indicated by radar or sighted by spotters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric National Weather Service.
“Some communities — not ours — have it to where if there are severe thunderstorms, they set theirs off. We don’t want our community to be tone deaf to our sirens,” Curlis said.
“We only set ours off as an indication for people outdoors to give them a heads up to take cover because a tornado is on the way. It’s an outdoor weather siren; it’s not for people who are indoors.”
Monroe Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said she and some of the district’s principals received e-mails from Primary School parents about how the district handled the tornado warning at the elementary and junior high buildings.
“We responded back to them and told them that we had taken precautions and we did not go into tornado alert because it was northwestern Butler County, and we were monitoring regularly,” she said.
Lolli said she has informed district principals that at any point in the future when there is a tornado warning for the county, the district will not follow the old procedure that was in place before she became superintendent in January 2008. That policy stated if the sirens went off, the district would go into the alert position or get the students to safe zones.
“In fact if there is a warning issued that comes through from the National Weather Service in Wilmington for Butler County, we will go into tornado drill position at that point,” she said.
Lolli said she made the change to clarify the district policy and establish more uniformity.
“Jodi Long (principal at Monroe Primary) had some of her kids in locker rooms and Jenny (Dennis, the principal at Monroe Junior High) had some of her kids in hallways. Nobody really went into full tornado alert,” she said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.
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