Shawnee County's warning sirens kept sounding after April 30 threat had passed. Here's why

Because software wasn't working as expected, Shawnee County warning sirens on April 30 continued to sound until well after the tornado threat passed.

The county's department of emergency management is working to review what happened and keep it from happening again, The Capital-Journal was told Friday by Dusty Nichols, director of that department.

"We now have the process identified to mitigate it should we find ourselves in that situation again," Nichols said in a text message.

What happened when Shawnee County sirens kept sounding?

The problem involved came about as severe thunderstorms swept through northeast Kansas during the late afternoon and early evening of April 30, triggering multiple tornado warnings in northern Shawnee County.

The county's emergency management department maintains a practice of initially sounding all its 67 sirens countywide when any one part of the county is put under a tornado warning, then following up by sounding sirens only in the warned area.

Because Shawnee County's software wasn't working as expected, the siren operator had to electronically turn on all the sirens individually, multiple times, Nichols said.

"When we do that, the system backs up," he said. "It is similar to sending a large, multiple-paged document to a printer by printing one page at a time. One cannot start until the one in front of it is finished.

"When we tried to 'cancel all,' it was only canceling the single one in cue, or one individual siren at a time," Nichols added.

Once emergency management department employees realized what was happening, they carried out a "hard reset" of the siren system, he said.

"And most people realize the full cancellation of the outdoor warning system was well after the warning ended," he said.

All the steps involved were taken via computer console, Nichols said.

"Literally a mouse click on a dot on a map," he said.

Nichols added that two of the county's sirens were reported as having not gone off April 30. He said he anticipated having those repaired by the end of this week.

Kansas saw its first tornado fatality since 2012

The April 30 storms brought Kansas its first tornado fatality since 2012, as Anna Miller, 58, was killed by a twister that destroyed her home in Westmoreland.

The tornado was on the ground from 4:40 to 4:48 p.m. and measured at EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale used to measure tornado intensity, said the website of the weather service's Topeka office.

It said the tornado was 100 yards wide, stayed on the ground for 2.58 miles and generated peak wind gusts of 140 mph.

The tornado destroyed 22 homes, damaged 13 others and caused minor injuries to three people, said Becky Ryan, public information officer for Pottawatomie County, for which Westmoreland is county seat.

Did Shawnee County see any tornadoes?

Video evidence showed a tornado briefly touched down at 6:34 p.m. April 30 in a field in the area of N.E. 46th and Meriden Road, the weather service's Topeka office said on its website. No damage was found, it said.

An EF-1 tornado was on the ground from 6:57 to 7:03 p.m. April 30 in southern Jefferson County, damaging a small farm before moving into the community of Williamstown, the weather service said.

It said the tornado was 100 yards wide, stayed the ground for 1.88 miles and generated estimated peak winds of 107 mph.

The April 30 tornado was Shawnee County's third this year.

The county previously saw tornadoes on March 13, when an EF-2 twister touched down near Rossville, and on April 16, when an EF-1 tornado — which had done considerable damage in Osage County — crossed briefly into southeast Shawnee County before lifting back up into the sky.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Shawnee County is prepared to cope with siren problem if it re-emerges