When you say jump …

1. When you say jump … Looking at the warnings and the response for the June 7 storms in Wisconsin

2. Emergency Management short list of end user interactions • Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) • Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) • EPCRA (Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-know Act) reporting facilities • Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) • Public/Private Partnership • Public: Fire, Law, Emergency Medical, Public Health, Human Services, Highway, Public Works, Department of Natural Resources, HazMat teams, municipal, county, state and federal government • Non-profit: United Way, Salvation Army, Red Cross • County fair

3. Emergency Management as an end user • We need to know what the potential danger is, where it will be, when it’s coming and how long it will last • The weather report itself does not necessarily provide this information

4. Quick orientation http://www.wisconline.com/maps/freeuse/stateuse.html

5. The June storms • An unseasonably strong upper level storm system and deep surface low pressure (with central pressure as low as 979 mb) interacted with a cold front that moved from west to east across the area during the late afternoon and evening. A moist and unstable airmass ahead of the cold front provided the fuel to generate severe thunderstorms that included five tornadoes (an EF3, an EF2, two EF1s and an EF0), hail and damaging winds.

6. The EF3 was a long-track tornado that moved across four counties. It was up to 3/4 of a mile wide and on the ground for 47 minutes, covered 40.1 miles, and destroyed 14,400 acres of woodlands and dozens of buildings. The storm also produced 60+ mph straight-line winds. • Softball size hail damaged thousands of homes. One hailstone that fell in Port Edwards measured 5.50 inches in diameter (2nd largest in the Wisconsin record). • Thousands of homes and sustained damage and about 15,000 customers lost power. Total damage from the storms exceeded $60 million.

7. In general … In all cases, the emergency manager keeps an eye on the situation and decide what steps should be taken (subject to the judgment of their local elected official)

8. June 5, 2007 4:43 pm • The state emergency management sent an e-mail about a conference call with NWS about severe weather expected in the next 48+ hours • State officials put out an e-mail to state, county and local officials in the affected area with detailed information about what might be coming in (stayed fairly consistent throughout) • The state partially activated their Emergency Operations Center and set up an informational conference call for the following day • “Wednesday Evening – According to the National Weather Service there is a chance for some scattered thunderstorms. However, they are not expected to be severe.”

9. June 6, 2007 8:10 am • The state sent out an update on the weather situation (at that time expected to mostly hit the western part of the state, with potential for EF2 and EF3 tornadoes) • Throughout the day, updates continued to be issued and refined, though the west was considered the highest risk region until the 7th • All Outagamie County departments, all municipalities and local officials were alerted as to the coming storms and began to consider staffing changes and verify contact lists • “Thursday – The NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma has issued moderate risk for severe weather for all of Wisconsin on Thursday.”

10. June 6, 2007 2:48 pm • “A strong low pressure is forecast to track northeast through Minnesota on Thursday to the Hudson Bay area by Friday morning. A trailing cold front will plow east through a very warm and moist air mass over Wisconsin. Clusters or short lines of thunderstorms will form ahead and along the cold front which will reach the Minneapolis-St. Paul area by around 1 pm. Severe storms will pop up over western Wisconsin by late Thursday morning or early afternoon. These storms will race northeast at 50 mph or higher. Isolated super cells are possible with tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail.”

11. June 6, 2007 3:50 pm • After a conference call with the NWS, Outagamie County put out this information to all of its response agencies and county departments (info from NWS but not an official publication) • A squall line with bow echo is expected to come through the region later afternoon/early evening. With this squall line the potential for large hail, hurricane force winds (74+ mph), and down drafts (see the picture below for a snap shot of the squall line). Additional storms, some severe, will accompany the main cold front which is behind the pre-frontal squall line. The cold front will not exit Wisconsin until around 3 am Friday morning. The severe storm activity associated with the cold front will not end over the eastern part of Wisconsin until after midnight Thursday night - possibly lingering over the southeast tip as late as 3 am Friday morning. • Possible damage with 74+ mph winds include: • loss of some roofing materials • broken glass/windows • buildings over 5 stories could have damage to roofs/walls with loss of rooftop HVAC • damage from flying debris • trees with large branches broken and possible uprooted trees

12. June 7, 2007 10:00 am • “We are expecting the north central and central parts of the state to receive potentially severe weather between 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. The eastern part of the state should expect potentially severe weather between 5:00 p.m. and midnight. At this time, we are having difficulty estimating the character of the storms. Strong winds, hail, and tornadoes are the greater risks if the storms remain more scattered. If the storms increase in size and merge together, damaging winds would probably be more common. The National Weather Service feels that the western portion of our area has a greater tornado risk. This by no means should mean that the eastern portion is not at risk. The unseasonably strong weather system is going to produce winds 25-35 mph. The strongest storms could produce golf ball size hail and winds over 75 mph plus tornadoes. These conditions will probably be not as widespread as what was said on Wednesday.”

13. June 7, 12:23 pm • County emergency managers began to contact each other to verify notification and lines of communication • Some counties understood the communications with the NWS to mean that we were in a wait-and-see situation but were requesting additional conference calls and info as things developed • Tornado warnings began to be issued for the western part of the state (11:35 am) • The state chose not to activate its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at that time • Outagamie County did physical set-up of phones and tables in their EOC and sent e-mails • Other counties were making a variety of decisions about activation and alert

14. June 7, 2007 5:07 pm • That state Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was activated (at 1:00 pm) and issuing situation reports as tornadoes were beginning to touch down and hail reports came in • Outagamie County was partially activated, with emergency management in the EOC monitoring the progression of the event • FEMA was notified but no requests for assistance went out at that time

15. June 7, 2007 7:57 pm • Reports started coming in of weak tornadoes causing limited damage and major hail

16. June 7, 2007 9:00 pm • State closes up shop at 9:00 pm as the storms clear and the dark stops the damage assessment process • At that time there were no complete damage assessments so there were no applications for state or federal aid (that would follow) • Storms officially cleared by midnight but they were no longer severe