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Broken Bow officials report EF1 tornado damage and update siren policy
Summary
City officials reported that an EF1 tornado struck near Anderson Auto Tech on July 16, causing local damage and outages; the council heard changes to the tornado-siren protocol, including county-activated alerts and a four-minute siren duration with no "all-clear" signal.
City Administrator Dave Schmidt told the Broken Bow City Council on July 23 that the National Weather Service and Custer County Emergency Management determined an EF1 tornado with peak winds of about 100 mph touched down in the back lot of Anderson Auto Tech during a July 16 storm, causing roof and transmission-line damage near South B Street and South 5th Avenue.
Schmidt said the storm produced strong outflow downbursts that damaged the Culligan building, stripped a metal roof and deposited debris into the middle of South 5th Avenue, which damaged an overhead transmission line and caused a localized electrical outage. "Power was restored to the community, excluding the three buildings directly impacted by the damage, by 11:30 p.m. that night and everything was restored to normal operating conditions by noon on Thursday, July 18," Schmidt said. He added that city employees worked a total of 86 man-hours clearing debris and restoring services.
The council was briefed on a revised tornado-siren policy by Fire Chief Dustin Wattson. Wattson said the new protocol will have Custer County Communications activate the sirens when the National Weather Service includes the city in a tornado warning polygon, and that the Broken Bow Fire Department retains the ability to activate sirens based on local spotter observations. "When the city is included in the geographical area of a tornado determined by the National Weather Service, the tornado sirens will be set off by Custer County Communications," Wattson said. He said local spotters with hand-held radios can also trigger the system.
Administrator Schmidt explained current siren timing and an administrative change to the post-event signal. "If the sirens are set off, they are programmed to continuously go off for four minutes unless they are shut off earlier," Schmidt said, and added the city will no longer sound an "all clear" for liability reasons, leaving post-event determinations to individual residents.
Mayor Rod Sonnichsen and councilmembers commended first responders, city crews, utility partners and volunteers for their response. The mayor said he will pursue establishing or securing a publicly designated storm shelter to improve community safety at future severe-weather events.
No council action was required on the weather report; the session moved on to other agenda items after the briefing.
