Bob Foos
It seemed Webb City would be clear after being under a tornado watch for nearly three hours Wednesday morning, but at 8:12 a.m. the warning sirens were activated.
Emergency Management Director Don Melton says there were no severe winds when the thunderstorm warning was issued at 7:57 a.m., but it wasn’t long after that that a tornadic rotation was detected around Airport Drive. That cell then went over Webb City, according to Melton, but it didn’t touch down.
“It kind of snuck in on us,” says Melton.
The tornado watch, spreading overnight from Kansas and Oklahoma, was expanded into Missouri at 5:22 a.m. Melton says he activated a text group of city and school officials responsible for emergency preparedness at 6:46 a.m., saying he was keeping an eye on the situation in case the shelters needed to be opened.
Surprisingly at 8:12 a.m., the rotation was detected, the tornado warning was issued, sirens went off and the shelters were opened.
Melton reports there were a lot of residents who went to the Cardinal Dome, which is a community shelter. Others also went to the two other community shelters at schools in Webb City – at Madge T. James Kindergarten Center and Crowder College.
The other school shelters are for students and staff only, but Melton said some residents showed up there anyway.
“I need to put out a reminder that you can’t take your dogs (or any pets) to the shelters,” he said.
He adds, however, that there are three shelters where leashed dogs and crated cats are allowed. They are at:
• The Public Works Center, 1060 N. Madison St.
• Head Start school, 300 N. College St.
• City Hall, 200 S. Main St.
There are two other community shelters within the Webb City R-7 School District – at Carterville Elementary School and the Harry S/Bess Truman Center in Oronogo.
Josh Flora, Webb City R-7 assistant superintendent for business operations, is one of those officials on Melton’s emergency group text.
The good thing for him, he said, was that the buses had all arrived at 7:45 a.m.
As he was notified through the group text and as the sirens sounded, an alert was sent immediately to every campus. He said the district uses an application for all sorts of emergencies – tornado, fire, intruder, etc. First responders are simultaneously notified by the same app.
Thanks to collaboration with the police and the district’s internal process for handling emergency situations, Flora says there were no major issues with getting students into the shelters. The rain even hadn’t begun falling down hard yet for students who have to leave their buildings to enter stand-alone shelters.
Flora thanked Tyler Christensen, director of safety and security, other staff members, first responders and emergency management.
“It makes you glad you practice for these things,” he said.
The Webb City Sentinel isn’t a newspaper – but it used to be, serving Webb City, Missouri, in print from 1879-2020. This “newspaper” seeks to carry on that tradition as a nonprofit corporation.
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