Storms pass through village
- Published: May 26, 2011
Many Yellow Springers took cover on Wednesday evening, May 26, as a local tornado siren sounded for the second time in three days.
The siren, located in Bill Duncan Park, sounded a little after 7 p.m. after the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Greene County. The warning came after Doppler radar spotted possible tornadic activity in a line of thunderstorms coming from the southeast, according to Kevin Deitsch of the NWS today. No actual tornadoes were spotted.
The Village sounded its tornado warning siren and also sent out Code Red alerts via telephone at about 7:05 p.m., then again at 7:10, according to dispatcher Larry Campbell. The Code Red alerts are automatic warnings to take cover that go to all Village landlines and also to cellphones whose owners have registered the number with the Code Red system.
Two of the Village’s three tornado sirens were still not working Wednesday night, according to Village Manager Mark Cundiff, who said the company making the repairs to the sirens said this week they will be functional by Friday, May 27. The sirens were discovered to be malfunctioning last fall, and a purchase order for new circuit boards was made in November, Cundiff said. However, in March the Village discovered the repairs had not been made and re-submitted the purchase order. .
Whether or not all three sirens are working, the Village will continue to use the Code Red system, Cundiff said. According to dispatcher Randall Newsome, it takes about five minutes for the automated warning to reach villagers.
Those who wish to register their cellphones should go to the Village Web site at http://www.yso.com, then click on Police Department, where they will find the Code Red notice.
After the 7 p.m. line of storms came through Wednesday evening, a second line came through at a litttle after 8:30, and a third at about 1 a.m., according to Deitsch. The storms did not appear to do damage in Yellow Springs, according to Cundiff, although hail the size of golf balls to baseballs crashed through windows in Xenia and other Greene County locations. Also, about 23,000 DP&L customers lost power, although Yellow Springs, which uses the municipal power cooperative AMP, did not lost power.
Regarding the damage to nearby communities, “We dodged a bullet by about 10 miles,” Cundiff said.
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