Local News
Statewide Tornado Drill Postponed to Friday – Severe Weather Awareness Week Continues
(Photo from NWS Milwaukee)
Tornado and Severe Weather Awareness Week continues in
Wisconsin – and with the chance of severe weather in Wisconsin today, the Statewide Tornado Drill that was scheduled for this afternoon has been postponed until Friday. Fond du Lac County Communications and Emergency Management Director Bobbi Hicken
says the details of the drill will be the same tomorrow. “There will be a mock Tornado Watch
that is issued at 1 pm, and then at 1:45 a mock Tornado Warning will be issued,”
Hicken said. “The sirens will sound, the weather radios will go off, the
emergency alert service notifications will not go off on your phone, but
everything else will go on.” A second test Tornado Warning will be issued at
6:45 pm.
Wisconsin Emergency Management and the National Weather
Service encourage people to practice their severe weather safety plan during
the drill(s) today. Hicken says one of the safest places to be during a tornado
is your basement, and you should have it prepared for when you need to use it. “In
a tornado situation you could be stuck down there for several hours if the
tornado does come through and there is debris and it is hard to get to you. So
it is important to have some non-perishable foods and water and to be ready for
anything when you have to go into the basement,” Hicken says. Wisconsin
averages 23 tornadoes per year, with most occurring between the 3 pm to 9 pm
time frame. It’s not just tornadoes that
cause damage – as Severe Thunderstorms can cause powerful straight-line winds
of 75 to 150 miles per hour during the summer season.