Due to expected inclement weather from Hurricane Hanna, the Tigers' football game against Thomson has been rescheduled for tonight, September 4, at 7 p.m. at Tiger Stadium.

 

Local authorities are warning that Hurricane Hanna's approach to the Georgia coast this weekend could put Wilkes County in line for heavy rain, severe thunderstorms, and possible tornadoes, much like the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay did last week.

"You need to be alert to weather conditions this weekend," said Wilkes Emergency Management Agency Director Alan Poss. The state EMA is monitoring the track of Hurricane Hanna, and is predicting landfall on the Georgia coast with significant impact to the Savannah River valley.

National Weather Service meteorologists say conditions will be right for tornadoes to pop up without warning as Hanna passes over Wil- kes County all weekend. The only tornadoes to cause damage here in recent years were spawned from hurricanes passing nearby, Poss said.

When warnings are issued, Wilkes County's newly upgraded weather alert radio system has been working as advertised, broadcasting the alert and the details and setting off weather alert radios in homes all over the county.

The National Weather Service sends out the tornado warning based largely on Doppler radar information showing a rotating thunderstorm with the potential to become a twister. When the warning is broadcast, Wilkes Deputy EMA Director Jerry Hackney said, deputies, EMS personnel, first responders, and GSP troopers fan out across the county to get detailed eyes-on reports and relay them through the Wilkes EMA to the weather service.

Television stations and radio stations will also broadcast the Emergency Alert Messages in some cases, but, Poss said, "It's the responsibility of each family to have a working NOAA weather alert radio like you get at Radio Shack."

A police/fire scanner can also be set to pick up the Wilkes weather alert signal at 162.500 MHz.

The warning sirens reach only places where there is a population concentration, so each family needs a NOAA weather alert radio, with batteries, Poss said. "It will even wake you up in the middle of the night when a tornado is near, and NOAA will tell you just what to do."

A tornado watch means conditions are right for a tornado to form, but a tornado warning means that a tornado has been sighted visually or on radar, and to take cover now.

When the tornado warning sirens went off for a funnel cloud spotted in March, Poss said, some people knew what to do: go to a basement or downstairs inside room, or the lowest floor of a building. Many knew to get out of their mobile homes and vehicles and get into a sturdy building.

"The NOAA weather alert on the radio gave very detailed information about the storm, too, and that's why families need to carry their weather radios into the shelter," Poss said. 

In a tornado warning event this spring, Poss said, Wills Memorial Hospital and the nursing homes responded perfectly. "They have tornado plans in place, and they exercised those plans without a hitch."

Once in a safe spot, you should use a radio, TV, or computer to get more information. Many Augusta stations will interrupt programming to bring live radar images of affected areas, and detailed radar and NWS warnings are available on the internet at Weather.com, Wunderground. com, and others.

But some folks do the exact wrong thing when a tornado has  been spotted. They go outside to look for themselves, or fail to take proper cover. "When the tornado warning siren goes off, it's not a tornado watch, it's a tornado warning, nd that means take cover at once. It's not a time to be a spectator."

There is no "all-clear" siren, Poss said. If the siren sounds again, it is another warning.

Poss said that anyone with questions about emergency response during a tornado should contact him at 706-678-7422.