Severe Weather Awareness Day in Lubbock
By Ben Jarrell
Perhaps one of the worst days in Lubbock’s history happened on May 11th, 1970 when an F5 tornado claimed the lives of 26 residents and injured more than a thousand.
Buildings and homes also were leveled during the storm which prompted President Richard Nixon to declare Lubbock a federal disaster area fore two days that year.
Saturday marked the last day of Severe Weather Awareness Week, which helps citizens understand what to do if similar severe weather presents itself and hopefully prevent another disaster like the 1970 tornado, as much as possible.
Held at the Science Spectrum in Lubbock, Severe Weather Awareness Day provided a chance for weather experts around the Hub City to educate people on the dangers of severe weather.
Steve Cobb, science and operations officer with the Lubbock National Weather Service, explined what he believes a city or university needs to do in order to receive StormReady certification.
“Basically, it ensures that the measures are there in place to receive the warnings that the National Weather Service issues,” Cobb said. “They have multiple communication methods to alert the public, or in the case of Texas Tech to watch the student population, of impending hazard and then that they have the measures to ensure that once the hazard is over making sure the people know what to do for the next case, for the next storm.”
Cpl. Jim Snow, with the Texas Tech police department, said StormReady certification is a good thing for the public to be aware of.
“It’s a good open sign to the members of our community," Snow said, "being the university, that the police department has their safety in mind and that we’re just showing them that we’re taking every step that we can to ensure their safety whenever severe weather threatens the university."
The event featured many fun activities for kids to help them learn about the dangers of severe weather. The event also featured a storm-spotter certification course.
Snow, who was a meteorologist for the Air Force before joining the Texas Tech police, said a more knowledgeable public is a positive, however, a person must be trained so they know what to look for.
“It would benefit any department, any person that wants to know what they’re looking at,” Snow said. “For anyone that wants to advance their knowledge of what they’re looking at, it’s always a good idea to take some training.”
One of the big issues of the day was the fact that Lubbock does not have operational tornado sirens.
Jennifer Huckabee, the co-chairman of the event and Vice President of the Texas Tech Chapter of the American Meteorlogical Society, said the main thing her organization wanted to get done in hosting the event was to raise awareness about the need for tornado sirens in Lubbock.
"You just need to be able to alert the public that there are dangers coming, it's the city's responsibility to alert citizens that there's danger," said Huckabee. "If other cities, bigger and smaller, than Lubbock can have it there's no reason that we, sitting here in Tornado Alley, shouldn't be able to have that kind of warning system."
Cobb, from the Lubbock National Weather Service, echoed Huckabee’s sentiments about the storm sirens.
“It just takes one storm to proove their benefit and to proove that the cost is worth it,” Cobb said.