Feds call for weather warning changes in wake of disasters such as Irene

In the days and hours before Tropical Storm Irene battered Vermont on Aug. 28, 2011, virtually everyone in the Green Mountain State knew the storm was coming. 

There’d been warnings for days that Irene could unleash destructive floods. Still, many people caught up in the torrent said they were stunned and surprised how bad things got. A National Weather Service disaster assessment report released this fall calls for finding ways to issue better warnings and help people act on those alerts.

“I don’t think anybody expected what happened to happen,” Pat Johnson, the assistant town clerk in Wilmington, said of the day Irene struck. She and five other people moved vital records in the clerk’s office to the second floor as floodwaters began to rush into the building. “So often, we’re we’re warned and nothing happens,” Johnson said. 

Johnson said she wishes warnings in the days ahead of the storm had harsher, more alarming wording. If that had happened, residents in the hard hit southern Vermont town would have started preparing sooner, Johnson said. The problem isn’t unique to Vermont. Several disaster assessments, including reports on deadly 2011 tornadoes in Alabama and Missouri, showed some people don’t respond adequately to storm warnings, and indicated forecasters must find ways to prompt people to protect themselves during alerts.

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