We were fortunate to be watching the late local news on Wednesday evening as a fast-moving line of thunderstorms crossed most of Central Florida. A few minutes into the newscast, the weather anchor announced that a severe thunderstorm warning had just been issued for Osceola County. "Hmmm," we thought, "why hasn't the weather radio sounded an alarm?" You know, the weather radios that all of the local experts have told us are the best means for notifying people that severe weather is coming. In our case, a fancy weather radio, the big brother to the one WFTV has been selling at Publix, that shows that it is receiving the weekly test tone and such. It's sounded alarms for us in the past, but nothing this time. Which leads us to wonder:
1) Did the TV station overstate the severe weather warning (seems unlikely),
2) Did the nature of the storm prevent the radio from receiving the alert signal (that's not good), or
3) Since the storm happened late at night, was the weather service office understaffed and someone forgot to hit the button or hit the wrong button (again, not good, night storms are when people need more warning). So needless to say, right now our faith in the weather radio system is a little shaken, and for those who have suggested subsidizing or giving out weather radios to the entire population, we wonder if giving out free/discounted basic cable might be a more effective means of warning.
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2 comments:
NOT BEING SURE WHERE YOU LIVE, MY WEATHER RADIO'S(2) BOTH WENT OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING. NOT AT 11PM, BUT MAYBE AROUND 12 OR 1?
So "Wayne's" weather radios went off between 12 and 1, after the storm was long past Kissimmee? What good is that?
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