In a new report from NOAA, the Joplin tornado offers important lessons for disaster preparedness. The report identifies best practices and makes recommendations to help save more lives during future violent tornadoes. Through interviews with more than 100 Joplin residents, the NOAA team found that societal response to warnings is highly complex and involves a number of factors, such as risk perception, overall credibility of warnings and warning communications. The report includes a number of key recommendations:
- Improve warning communications to convey a sense of urgency for extreme events.
- Collaborate with partners who communicate weather warnings to develop GPS-based warning communications
- Collaborate more throughout the weather enterprise to ensure that weather warning messages are consistent to reduce confusion and stress the seriousness of the threat; and
- Continue to increase community preparedness.
Radar animation of Joplin tornado on May 22, 2011 (NOAA)
Recall, 159 people died and more than 1,000 were injured – See details of the report HERE