The town I live in has a phone warning system for severe weather and other disasters. It's a fairly common arrangement in this area and makes a good deal of common sense on the face of it.
Comes today when there is some severe weather in Massachusetts that includes a couple of tornadoes that touch down. The first NWS TV broadcast was around 4:30 or so in plenty of time to let people know that there might be an issue. Mind you, there was plenty of thunder and lightning so you'd have to be def and blind not to know. So I check with NECN, the regional cable news that has a VERY enthusiastic weather man given to detailed ongoing weather coverage. I watch for a bit and find that the storms are tracking toward my town. They are still a good ways away and, fortunately, hook and track well south of us by about 5:30 or so.
Now at 6:05 I get an emergency notification call from the town's emergency alert system that a) the NWS has issued a tornado warning that includes Sudbury (btw, it never did) starting at 5:00 and that the storm is expected to arrive about 6:08. That's great right? Three minutes warning for something that actually happened 35 minutes ago! Not to worry though the town has my best interest at heart and call again at 6:18 with the same message.
At some level it's a case of no harm no foul as the storm went south of us. But really what would have happened if it hadn't? Common Sense suggests that for an emergency alert system to work it is necessary that it provide timely and accurate warning. Warnings 65 minutes after the NWS issued them, 35 minutes after the event would have occurred, and then again 78 minutes after the original NWS warning doesn't work and doesn't make common sense. Surely the town can and should do better.
