Heart-rending stories continue to pour out of Alabama where tornadoes struck three times within 10 hours last Friday, left towns in tatters and killed hundreds there and in adjoining states.
Iolans live in tornado country, too. What happened to town after town in Alabama last week could devastate Allen County next week. It’s that season of the year.
Prepare.
Pay attention to the weather forecasts. Pay attention to the skies. Know what to do when a siren sounds. Go to a shelter like the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, the Iola City Hall, Lincoln and McKinley elementaries, the post office, your own or a neighbor’s basement. Get out of a mobile home as quickly as possible for some safer place. If you are in a car, don’t try to out-run a storm, get out of it and lie in a ditch till it passes. (You’ll dry out; your clothes will wash.)
After a tornado live power lines can prove deadly. Don’t enter badly damaged buildings that may collapse.
Forget what those mythical Indians said: tornadoes don’t really mind touching down on either side of any river — or right in the middle of it. Makes just as much sense to swear up and down that they never strike on Tuesdays until after supper and always spare Presbyterians.
And please take that siren seriously.
Oh, one more thing: if you want to help the victims in Alabama and elsewhere, give to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. They are always there first; always help most.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
