“It’s ironic,” the newscaster said, “that just this week the Illinois Emergency Management Agency was telling people to be ready for storm season in March and have those weather radios ready.”
To me, that’s not irony. That’s a message that saves lives. The folks in Harrisburg, Illinois, who had weather radios had about 13 minutes lead time to get to safety after the radios went off. That’s not a lot of time, but it’s enough time to wake up the kids and get them to safety.
Weather radios are relatively inexpensive—they can be had for less than $30—they’re small, and they’ve been proving that they work for decades. Their one downside is that forecasters can’t predict exactly when and where a tornado will strike, so the radio will sometimes go off and then nothing happens at your house, as the tornado hits somewhere else, or it stays just off the ground.
The images we see on TV and the web can’t convey just how much damage a tornado does. Those of us who have walked through a neighborhood the day after, who have talked with people as they sort through the pile of boards that used to be their house, who have heard first-hand the fear in people’s voices as they talk about huddling in the basement or pulling a mattress over their bathtub and holding on for dear life—we have weather radios. And we’re glad when we pull our families to our safe rooms and nothing happens.
The Red Cross was on the scene yesterday, we’ll be there today, tomorrow, and for a long time to come—sheltering people who have no homes, feeding people who no longer have kitchens, and helping people figure out what’s next. We can do this because the American people are incredibly generous with their contributions. But, after you have helped disaster survivors through the American Red Cross, help yourself and your family today as well.