In Kansas, the weather is all over the place with it being the middle of spring and almost summer. Mornings are still cold and afternoons are blazing hot. Storms can differentiate in severity, size, and type.
“I was reporting and It was in 2013 when there was a tornado that hit South Wichita and it caused damage to Aero Spirit Systems that was also the day we had tornadoes hit Salina and South of Salina,” Meteorologist Blake Smith said.
Experiencing a storm from the TV and watching the devastation that occurs to other families is an entirely different experience than living through one.
“In 2017, I lived through Hurricane Irma when it hit the south coast of Florida, I was with my family and my extended family and we stayed with them since his house was more prepared,” Junior Riley Ney said. “We knew about the Hurricane for about a month before it hit and there was a lot of anxiety and stress leading up to it because of the supply shortages and board up our windows. For a middle schooler experiencing that for the first time, it was stressful.”
Living through a storm and being helped by others is one experience that doesn’t fade easily. Helping people during a time of need leads to an unforgettable memory.
“I remember some work that I did for Harvey County Emergency Preparedness, I stopped at some people for welfare checks to make sure some older people were okay because some of their family members had been trying to contact them, but couldn’t because the phones weren’t working properly. So we would go to people’s houses and check on them and make sure they were okay and report back,” Fred Becker said.
Regardless of the situation, whether you are helping or being helped, storms are still an unfortunate encounter. However, helping the situation out allows the experience to be easier.
“During [Hurricane Irma] it wasn’t as bad, the only thing bad about it was the stress leading up to it and what we had to do after is what sucked the most. But during the storm, the only thing that bothered me the most was the occasional loss of power and we just played board games, lit candles, and just kind of chilled through the storm,” Ney said.
Although experiencing a storm allows for future understanding of unexpected events, it is important to understand what is happening through family, news, and the internet. There are many precautions to take during storms and it is important to have a plan and stay up to date with new information.
“At night you can not see [storms] coming, and on our cellphones, we get warnings that are sent to us but a lot of people don’t read the radar or understand how to read the radar. So we depend on people telling us that information,” Smith said. The science in meteorology has gotten much better, we even saw that a year ago Andover they got the YMCA got destroyed that was a storm that was from nowhere and it ended up being an EF 3 tornado. Whenever you get a tornado warning take it as seriously as possible.”
Knowing how unpredictable and destructive storms can be leads to the seriousness of safety precautions during storms. The weather is not with you even when a storm is not taking place.
“We have a phenomenon called Bolt from The Blue where even if you have blue skies and there is a storm 10 miles away you can still be struck by lightning and I think people underestimate lighting,” Smith said.
During storms or clear skies, it is important to make sure that you are staying safe and making the best out of a bad situation.
“At one point I opened my curtain I saw someone kayaking through the street of Florida, because of how flooded the streets were,” Ney said.
