To the editor:

The storm that hit Lawrence Sunday morning is still fresh in everyone’s minds, but as the estimates of damage keep increasing, we should feel very lucky that no serious injuries occurred. The most frightening aspect of what happened Sunday morning is that the warnings were initiated several minutes after most of the devastation had transpired.

After reading Ron Knox’s article from March 13, it is clear that Douglas County officials were prepared to take the necessary actions to warn people if the storm became severe. And yet, preparedness did not equal timely action. Assistant Emergency Management Director Teri Smith said that although information was coming in from storm chasers around the county at 7:30 a.m., the 33 sirens did not go off until 8:08 a.m., eight minutes after damage reports had started coming in. Why the delay?

Being that this is a college town, most people between the ages of 18 and 24 were asleep, so it would have been very tough for most to heed any warnings on TV or radio. Also, tornado sirens, as mentioned in Knox’s article, are only meant to warn people outside, not people sleeping indoors. Clearly, there needs to be a better system. But I’ll leave that to the experts.

Unfortunately, the warning system is still flawed, and we can see that, once again, technology can only take us so far. Obviously, not even the experts can predict how devastating a storm can become, but it is disconcerting that warnings were first issued well after the damage was done. To me, that’s unacceptable when lives are at stake.

Adil Zafar,

Lawrence