TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Drills Prepare Local Students For Disaster
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: February 7, 2008
TAMPA - A day after tornadoes in five states killed dozens of people, Hillsborough County students crouched in hallways, heads tucked to their knees, practicing what to do should a twister threaten here.
It was part of a mandatory statewide drill, planned long before the Southern storms, to prepare students in kindergarten through 12th grade for a tornado. By week's end, all Hillsborough's 236 schools and 192,000 students will have taken part in the drill.
Planning likely saved the lives of students at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., on Tuesday night. Many followed school plans and took refuge in dormitory bathrooms once tornado sirens sounded.
At the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa, officials said they would rely heavily on cell phones to get out the word about tornadoes.
Text alerts would go to more than 10,000 students, faculty and staff, said Ken Gullette, USF spokesman.
Also, the campus has sirens to warn of an approaching storm.
The University of Tampa also would send e-mail and cell phone text alerts if a tornado threatens. Those warnings also likely would include instructions for students, staff members and faculty to seek shelter in bathrooms or stairwells, said UT spokesman Eric Cardenas.
Though most of Florida's tornadoes form during the summer when schools are out, less frequent but much more powerful tornadoes can strike during the winter.
Those twisters spawn when approaching cold fronts collide with warmer air in their paths. That's what happened Tuesday across the South.
An approaching front also caused a series of tornadoes Feb. 2, 2007, that bore through Sumter, Lake and Volusia counties. In all, 21 people died.
In Hillsborough County's schools, the annual tornado drills started Wednesday. Most other counties in Florida will conduct the drill Friday.
Here's how the school district's tornado plan works:
•When the National Weather Service issues a tornado watch, computer pop-up alerts go to schools. Principals also receive alerts on pagers, and each school has a weather radio that sounds alerts for tornadoes and other severe weather.
•Students are evacuated from portable buildings, auditoriums, cafeterias, gyms. Any students outdoors are brought inside.
•When a tornado watch escalates to a tornado warning, students are taken to interior rooms if possible and told to "duck and cover." They remain there until the weather service says the threat has passed.
A tornado watch means weather conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form. A tornado warning means a twister has been seen or appears on radar. A warning covers smaller areas than watches.
That's how it played out Wednesday in a drill at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Hyde Park.
Already alerted that a tornado watch was in effect, school administrators and teachers were ready when the alarm sounded six sharp clangs. Teachers quickly led students from their classrooms and into an interior corridor.
There, the students sat on the floor, backs to the banks of lockers, pulled their knees to their chests, and ducked their heads. Teachers shut metal fire doors at each end of the corridor.
The students, roughly 200 on the school's third floor, stayed there in silence for 10 minutes until an announcement came over the intercom that the threat of a tornado had passed. The same procedure was repeated on the second floor.
A committee reviews what happens after every drill to see whether improvements are needed, said Lonnie Choate, Wilson's assistant principal.
For example, students used to be evacuated from a second, windowless building on the campus to the three-story main building. That approach was scrapped because it meant exposing the students to the elements. Now they remain in the separate building.
This year, Choate said, the safety committee likely will look at whether those students close to an exterior fire door or adjacent to an outside wall should go elsewhere.
Each school adjusts its tornado safety procedures to suit its layout. Ideally, students should be in interior rooms, but barring that, rooms with no windows. If that isn't possible, the students would sit on the floor with backs to windows and duck and cover, Choate said.
If there is time after a watch is issued, the school may use a telephone system to alert parents, said Linda Cobbe, spokeswoman for the school system.
It's unlikely that calls to the school during such an emergency would be answered, she said.
Parents should not drive to the school.
"We don't want parents driving around in a tornado," Cobbe said.
Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)
* Keep it clean
* Respect others
* Don't hate
* Don't use language you wouldn't use with your mom
* Use "Report Inappropriate Comments" link when necessary
* See Member Agreement for details