Drill necessary even in November

Jamey Robinson (right) discusses a recent tornado drill with Eddyville-Blakesburg Elementary staff

Mahaska County Emergency Management Coordinator Jamey Robinson helped oversee a new tornado drill at Eddyville-Blakesburg’s elementary school in Eddyville on Tuesday.

22 tornado’s have stuck Iowa in the period from 1980 to 2008 during the month of November. Winter is normally a low risk season in Iowa, but being prepared before it happens is something Robinson strives for in Mahaska County.

I asked Jamey about today’s drill and why it was being done. “Eddyville’s previous plan lacked some safety precautions for the children as far as where they were putting them. When we look at tornado plans for schools, we like to keep everybody in one designated area, you keep them in a centralized location as far as the building so that if something does strike the building, it’s protecting the children and the facility to the buildings full capability.”

“Last week we went in and evaluated the school and looked at the best options. Eddyville Elementary really jumped on the ball to continue that process by having a drill today utilizing some of those suggestions we discussed last week. I feel by doing so, having the children being more centralized and in a more safe location, it’s going to really pay off for them if something were ever to effect Eddyville.”

Tornado's by month in Iowa - 1980 to 2009

What would be your suggestions for other schools? Do you have any future plans to help any other schools? ” I spoke with Fremont last week, and I know they are going to do some revisions. They are also going to give me a call and we are going to go take a look at theirs. I would encourage all schools to look at all their plans, not just the tornado but their fire, everything. Making sure that they are utilizing the potential of their building or their exits to their fullest capabilities. Any time your dealing with children, that’s a high risk population, and people are concerned about their kids. If something happens your going to have a lot of traffic showing up at those buildings. We need to look at it not just from the students and facility but the outside world as well. Hopefully we will continue to push that through the schools and we will get everyone where they need to be.”

So it would be a good idea for schools to re-evaluate because building usage changes over years? “Correct, or if they plan on doing future additions, those are things that need to be taken into consideration. It’s nice to have new classroom’s here or there, but they need to take a look at the whole picture, making sure that when they incorporate these new classrooms or new structures that they also include these into their pre-plan so they know exactly how they are going to utilize it.”

Jamey reminded me that even though this is November, there was a tornado watch in Iowa yesterday, November 22. Our neighboring states were hit by tornado’s yesterday as well.

In 2005 Iowa suffered a Tornado outbreak that claimed the life of 1 and doing extensive damage across Iowa with 13 confirmed touchdowns on November 12, 2005. The video from the Woodward Tornado that is just incredible is available on Youtube if your interested.