Being prepared can save a life

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, April 18, 2008

Next Thursday disaster will strike at an Otter Tail County public school.

Fire departments, the sheriff’s department, EMS crews, hospital staff, police departments and school official;ls will converge on Prairie Wind Elementary School in Perham where a make-believe tornado will strike the school, raising havoc in the Perham community.

While only a drill, it is a useful exercise to remind us that tornado season is upon us.

The focus of the drill, in part, is to test the procedures and policies currently in place as well as the abilities of the participating agencies to communicate during an emergency situation.

It’s one of the highlights of next week’s “Severe Weather Awareness Week” in Minnesota and serves as a reminder that disasters such as tornadoes can happen right here in Otter Tail County.

Tuesday in Perham isn’t the only time that tornado sirens will sound next week. In Fergus Falls and other communities with the warning systems, sirens will sound twice on Thursday — once at 1:45 p.m. so schools, businesses, daycares and medical facilities can practice their emergency plans. They will sound again at 6:55 p.m. Thursday so that families can practice their emergency plans.

It might surprise you that Otter Tail County is in the midst of Minnesota’s own “tornado alley.”

According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, there were 18 tornadoes in Minnesota in 2007 — the lowest total since 1990. But it was here in Otter Tail County where the strongest tornado of 2007 was reported near Pelican Rapids, which had winds of 111-135 mph.

While the National Weather Service says a tornado has struck every single Minnesota county, tornadoes have struck Otter Tail County 46 times over the past 57 years — second only to Polk County.

Minnesota’s deadliest tornado of the 20th century — and the second deadliest in Minnesota’s history — occurred right here in Fergus Falls when on June 22, 1919, a series of tornados struck the Lake Alice area and wiped out two-thirds of Fergus Falls.

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the tornado tore through the northern part of town, leveling 44 city blocks (including the business district), destroying 159 homes and damaging 250 more. Of the 57 people that died at least 35 of them were in the Grand Hotel, a three story, 100-room hotel. Two hundred more were injured. The Otter Tail County courthouse, county jail, four churches and the Northern Pacific rail depot were destroyed. The Great Northern Oriental Limited passenger train was thrown off the tracks by the tornado, but remarkably none of the 250 passengers on the train was seriously injured. Checks that were sucked up by the tornado in Fergus Falls were found 60 miles to the east.

That goes to show that disaster can strike here at home.

State, local, and the federal government have invested heavily in warning systems that hopefully warn us far in advance of tornadoes, which has dramatically cut the number of tornado fatalities but the basics learned during Severe Weather Week are still critically important and can save a life.

So next week pay attention to the tornado sirens, think about your disaster plans and put a fresh pair of batteries in your weather radio. The most important thing you can do is be prepared.

Jeff Hage is the managing editor of the Daily Journal. He can be contacted at jeff.hage@fergusfallsjournal.com.