Officials answer questions about tornadoes

The city uses its own storm warning system.
By ERIC GROSSO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEWTON FALLS -- City council addressed why the emergency sirens were not activated during last Tuesday's Fourth of July celebration, after numerous resident complaints.
"There were no tornadoes," said Police Chief Robert Carlson.
Residents addressing council Monday wondered why sirens were not activated in Newton Falls but were activated in surrounding areas after a tornado warning had been issued for Portage and Trumbull counties by the National Weather Service.
The concern prompted council to update people on the city's tornado warning protocol.
Carlson noted that the city uses storm spotters trained by the NWS to spot tornadoes. The spotters are positioned on rooftops throughout the city.
"There is only one instrument that can spot a tornado: the human eye," said Carlson.
At the site of a funnel cloud by one of the spotters, the sirens are immediately activated. The spotters communicate quickly through ham radio, which often gives them information faster than from dispatchers and the NWS, Carlson said.
Newton Falls does not use the countywide system, in which a tornado warning issued by the NWS will automatically trigger alarms.
Councilman Eric Thompson said the increased number of countywide siren activations makes it hard for people to take the alarms seriously. "Others get complacent with the sirens. We don't need that here," he said.
Thompson said the city's Public Safety Committee should look at the situation, noting that the committee knows more about trained storm spotting than council does.
What was tried
In the late 1980s, the city tried using the countywide system, but Carlson said the protocol for using that system -- including an initial warning siren and an all-clear siren -- confused residents. People wanted the old system back after a few years.
He also said the tornado that hit Newton Falls in 1985 would have resulted in increased injuries under the countywide system. "We would have sounded the sirens at 3:30 p.m. when the storm was a county over, then again at 6 p.m. when the storm hit here. People wouldn't have known if the second siren that was an all-clear signal or what," said Carlson.
Tuesday, an announcement about severe weather caused a majority of the crowd to leave the celebration before fireworks were set off.
"We don't want people to panic; we don't want to cause chaos over nothing," said Larry Sembach, Newton Falls Safety Force captain.
Some residents would like the city to use both systems. "I was under the impression that we use both of these. We need double-coverage in these situations," said Dave Bera. "Some people were saying a tornado was coming; some were saying it was a thunderstorm. There was definitely a lot of confusion."