From Tim Isom, Emergency Management Director, City of Northfield:

Greetings,

This is a reminder that today, Thursday, April 22, 2010 is Tornado Drill day.  Listed below is information and schedule as it pertains to today’s events.

Tornado Drill Day Schedule

The National Weather Service, Wisconsin Emergency Management, the Minnesota Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and other state, county and local agencies have come together to host Severe Weather Awareness Week activities. On Thursday, April 22, 2010, simulated tornado watches and warnings will be issued to test the statewide warning and communications systems.

For those with weather radios or equipment that receives Emergency Alert Signals (EAS), please note:

On Thursday, April 22, the National Weather Service (NWS) offices will use the TOR (Tornado) code in their NOAA Weather Radio test warning, rather than RWT (Routine Weekly Test) that NWS has had to use in the past.  The Minnesota EAS  board with support from the Minnesota Broadcasters Association requested and was granted an FCC waiver to use this code for a more realistic test of the EAS and NOAA weather radio systems.  The test Tornado warning will contain multiple uses of the word "test," so it should be clear that this is not the real thing.

The schedule for April 22nd is as follows:

(all times CDT) – All events and times are subject to change or cancellation due to conditions.

1:00 PM: The National Weather Service will issue a simulated tornado watch for Wisconsin and Minnesota (except the northwest portion of Minnesota).

1:40 PM: The National Weather Service will issue a simulated tornado warning for 9 counties of western Wisconsin (Barron, Chippewa, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Rusk and St Croix). Note that most cities and counties will activate outdoor warning siren systems.

1:45 PM: The National Weather Service will issue a simulated tornado warning for Minnesota counties (except those in the northwestern part of the state). Note that most cities and counties will activate outdoor warning siren systems.

2:00 PM: The National Weather Service will issue an "End of Test" message using the Severe Weather Statement product. It should be stated that outdoor warning sirens will not be sounded again for this all clear, nor will there be any warning tone on NOAA Weather Radio.

6:55 PM: Another simulated tornado warning will be issued for 73 participating counties in Minnesota. Those counties not participating are: Aitkin, Carlton, Hubbard, Itasca, Kanabec, Kittson, Lincoln, Otter Tail, Pennington, Pipestone, Sibley, St. Louis, Watonwan and Wilkin.

A graphic of the counties participating in the evening drill is available at
http://www.severeweather.state.mn.us/Documents/Participating_Counties_Drill_Map_2010.pdf

The 6:55 PM warning will be issued by the six National Weather Service offices that serve Minnesota. It will be issued as a test of family preparedness in the home and for second shift workers.

For information about Tornadoes and preparations, please visit

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/tornado.shtml

For more information about Severe Weather Awareness week, please visit the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s website at:

http://www.severeweather.state.mn.us/

Tim Isom
Emergency Management Director
City of Northfield
Northfield MN  55057
Tim.Isom@ci.northfield.mn.us

You can sign up now so that the system alerts you via landline phone, cell phone, text message and email. Just visit either the City of Northfield Police Dept. page or the Emergency info page and click on the CodeRed logo/link. You’ll be sent to a special Rice/Steele page on the CodeRed.com website. (I’m deliberately not linking to it from here in case the URL changes.)

Click play to listen. 30 minutes.

You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes. Our radio show/podcast, Locally Grown, usually airs Mondays at 6:00 PM and Sundays at 10 AM on KYMN 1080 AM.

But a search of the City’s web site for the word ‘CodeRed’ brings up “Sorry, no data matching the query "codered " were found.”

It gets worse.

The City of Northfield’s Emergency Information page makes no mention of it.

A Google search of the City of Northfield’s website for the two-word phrase “code red” only shows an 8/14/2009 disbursement to the Steele County Treasurer for $3000.

A Google search of the city’s site on the word ‘CodeRED’ only finds the logo on the Police Dept. web page. No explanatory text, just a logo, linked to the service.

A search for ‘CodeRED’ on the KYMN site comes up empty.

Steele County has an Oct. 1 press release on CodeRED indicating that the publicity blitz for this new service began two months ago.

A search of the City of Lonsdale’s website brings up an 8-page Code Red Public Relations Plan (PDF) that was implemented in early October. They also have a CodeRED flyer with a helpful FAQ (PDF).

Why is Northfield so bad at getting the word out?

I blogged about this in April. And in May, the Nfld News reported that “local organizations are rolling out their emergency preparedness plans.”

But two months have gone by and there’s no public evidence of it.

Ten years ago, I was part of Northfield’s Ad Hoc Y2K Task Force that was meeting weekly at the Goodbye Blue Monday Coffeehouse.  We had a private email list for the group to use for planning, and for the public, NCO/Northfield.org hosted a Y2K website and a very active discussion topic in the NCO Web Cafe. I wrote a piece titled Y2K: The Northfield Way that was part of MPR’s online Y2K Coverage. 

It’s time for Northfield’s institutional leaders to begin an H1N1 public awareness/preparedness campaign and to include the use of social media in its communications toolkit.

Here’s the White House email:

John O. Brennan, The White House <info@messages.whitehouse.gov>
Date: Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 10:55 AM
Subject: Preparing for H1N1 and the upcoming flu season

As the President’s advisor on Homeland Security, I am passing along the following message from Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, who are leading the efforts to prepare our Nation for the coming flu season.

Fellow Americans,

This spring we were confronted with an outbreak of a troubling flu virus called 2009-H1N1. As the fall flu season approaches, it is critical that we reinvigorate our preparedness efforts across the country in order to mitigate the effects of this virus on our communities.

Today, we are holding an H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit in conjunction with the White House to discuss our Nation’s preparedness. We are working together to monitor the spread of 2009-H1N1 and to prepare to initiate a voluntary fall vaccination program against the 2009-H1N1 flu virus, assuming we have a safe vaccine and do not see changes in the virus that would render the vaccine ineffective.

But the most critical steps to mitigating the effects of 2009-H1N1 won’t take place in Washington — they will take place in your homes, schools and community businesses.

Taking precautions for this fall’s flu season is a responsibility we all share. Visit Flu.gov to make sure you are ready and learn how you can help promote public awareness.

We are making every effort to have a safe and effective vaccine available for distribution as soon as possible, but our current estimate is that it won’t be ready before mid-October. This makes individual prevention even more critical. Wash your hands regularly. Take the necessary precautions to stay healthy and if you do get sick, stay home from work or school.
We are doing everything possible to prepare for the fall flu season and encourage all Americans to do the same — this is a shared responsibility and now is the time to prepare.

Please visit Flu.gov to learn what steps you can take to prepare and do your part to mitigate the effects of H1N1.

Take Care,
Kathleen, Janet and Arne