National Weather Service: 8 tornadoes touched down in Chase County
22 April 2023
CHASE COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) – Knowing where to go when a tornado warning goes into effect is something that needs to be decided before it happens.
The National Weather Service announced on Friday that eight tornadoes touched down in Chase County on Wednesday, ranging from EF-0 to EF-2, with the strongest peak wind at 125 mph. These tornadoes and high winds caused widespread damage.
Not every home in Kansas has a basement, nor does every city have a community shelter. People in Chase County utilized their community’s new shelters for the first time during Wednesday’s storm.
About five years ago, Chase County School District USD 284 made the investment to add two storm shelters in their community: One in Strong City and one in Cottonwood Falls at the junior and high school.
“The average lead time for a tornado warning is 13 minutes,” said Craig Ceecee, Meteorologist and Ph.D. Candidate studying community shelters.
That’s a short window to get to safety.
“As I’m in my shelter at my house, I was sending out alerts to all of our community members,” said Glenna Grinstead, USD 284 Superintendent.
For the first time since being built, USD 284 opened its two community storm shelters.
“We did not have full shelters, and we had more room, so if more people wanted to come into the shelter, they were would have, we would have had room for them,” said Grinstead. “I think as word spread, and people realize that they’re, they’re available, and we do open them up, and this is our plan and how we do it that I think more people will start using that shelter.”
That is not an option for all cities. Ceecee has been researching community storm shelters.
“There’s not nearly enough. There are many communities that do not have them, and there’s a big demand for them,” said Ceecee.
Over the last two years, he’s been creating a map of all tornado shelters across the country.
“A lot of lower-income counties do not have them, and that’s where some of the greatest need is there’s probably counties that may want them, but they can’t afford them with their limited tax base,” said Ceecee.
USD 284 is looking at how to make sure more people know the shelters are available.
“So we will learn and improve with anything that we do. We feel like it’s a learning process. So we know that we have changes to make. For example, with communication, we’re going to try to do some preliminary advertising rather than, ‘Oh, it’s here. We have a tornado,'” said Grinstead.
Grinstead says this week, they plan to take photos of the entrance and share information about the shelters.
If you don’t have a community shelter nearby or a basement of your own, you can still protect yourself.
“Make sure that there’s many walls as possible between yourself and the outside. So a room with windows is not ideal. You want to look for something in the middle because many walls between you and that outside threat as possible,” Devan Tucking, Recovery Section Chief with the Kansas Division of Emergency Management.
The biggest tip: Make your storm plan now.
Storm shelter resources: