Showing posts with label Storm procedure for the parks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Storm procedure for the parks. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

What if a tornado were to hit Shadow Rock Park?

It's Memorial Weekend and both River Run and Shadow Rock Parks are filled to capacity with families out enjoying what had been a picture perfect and hot late spring outing. RV's of all shapes and sizes fill most of the camping sites with just a few tents scattered about here and there. The smell of barbeque fills the air as do the shouts of children who are having the time of their young lives.

'Suddenly, and seemingly without warning, the sky to the southwest turns an ominous dark as rain laden clouds race towards the Forsyth area in southwest Missouri. All day long, the National Weather Service had been advising listeners to be prepared to take precautions as a line of super cell thunderstorms had formed just across the Arkansas-Kansas border and which were now racing to the northeast at 60 mph!

In no time at all, shortly after 4PM, the first of a series of F1-F2 class tornadoes dips down and so begins a swath of destruction that will continue for miles and miles. A path that pointed straight like an arrow, to Shadow Rock park and families who only became aware that they were in jeopardy when the sirens began to go off...'

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Fortunately, that dialog is just a story and hopefully that theoretical storm passes by with everyone only a little wet for the experience. But, it did bring to my mind a question and that is what services are in place in the event of such a potential disaster? Are there safe havens for people to run to if a storm brews up with little warning? If so, where are they and how would information about them get disseminated?

Yes, I'm playing the devil advocate here, but like a lot of people I spend quite a bit of my time in either or both of these parks and confess to never having seen anything in writing that advises of what I could do in such a situation. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?