Statewide tornado drill prepares Missouri residents for tornado weather

There was a statewide tornado drill this morning at 10 a.m.

Springtime is coming, which is prime time for tornado weather.

Today, during the tornado drill, professors had students go to the basement and away from the window at Missouri University.

Missouri University spokesperson, Christian Basi, did say they had some glitches. The notifications from the National Weather service did not connect through to the university computers. Officials plan to run further tests to fix the problem.

A student at MU told us, he took part in the morning’s drills and said he is ready for severe weather, “I think so, I think we’re well prepared.”

The Deputy Director, Tom Hurley, of the Boone County Office of Emergency Management said that their training drill ran smoothly this morning. They have a talk-back feature, which tells them if parts of the system are failing to operate.

“I think we are very prepared here, locally. We have a good training exercise program. We have good communication, among the response agencies and partners and the recovery aspect as well, we do a very strong job with it,” said Hurley.

Hurley said to take advantage of this time of the year. It is important to have a tornado kit available at home. Some of the things that should be included in the kit are:

water (1 gallon per person per day, enough for three days) canned or dried food (enough for three days per person) first aid kit battery powered radio flashlight extra batteries for radio and flashlight prescription medications

Hurley also said to make sure to sign up to receive warnings and watches that are issued by the National Weather Service.

“Being able to receive notifications quickly, not only increases the chance of survival, but decreases the chance of injury,” said Hurley.

Boone County Office of Emergency Management will be doing training drills the first Wednesday of every month at 12 noon.