Tornado drill successful

Jamestown (CSi) Stutsman County participated in the simulated state-wide tornado exercise Wednesday morning, April 29, 2015 as part of Severe Summer Weather Awareness Week.  The exercise, which was scheduled to begin 11:15 a.m., started on time with a test tornado warning initiated by the National Weather Service.

Stutsman County Emergency Manager, Jerry Bergquist says, part of the exercise included testing the county’s emergency operations plan.  A portion of the plan consists of Law Enforcement Center dispatchers activating siren systems for several communities in the County.  The sirens in Medina, Buchanan and Cleveland proved to be operational and ready for the summer weather season.  However, the siren at Streeter and the siren located at Frontier Village in Jamestown malfunctioned.  An effort is underway to get both sirens repaired and ready for use.

In addition, the National Weather Service activated its All Hazards Radio System and local radio stations and CSi cable  tested the Emergency Alert Systems, with cable interrupt.

Even though an official “warning” was broadcast by the National Weather Service, the CodeRED Weather Warning notification system did not activate.   Bergquist,  believes the CodeRED activation didn’t occur because there were no specific boundaries attached to the warning.  CodeRED is designed to warn individuals that have addresses within the warned area.  And, for the tornado exercise, specific boundaries were not identified.

Those wanting to sign up for CodeRED can do so by going to the Stutsman County webpage at www.co.stutsman.nd.us and click on the CodeRED icon at the bottom of the page.  Choose to receive tornado, thunderstorm and/or flash flood warnings on land-line telephones, cell-phones (including text message capable phones), VOIP phones and also via email addresses.  CodeRED Weather Warning is a no-cost way to receive immediate weather warning information, but, you must register for the service.  For those needing assistance to register, contact Stutsman County Emergency Management at 701-252-9093.