Is Eaton tornado ready?

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Last weeks severe storm in Preble County was a real eye opener. Pea sized to tennis ball sized hail rained down as thunder crashed and tornado sirens blaired. While a tornado warning was issued for parts of the county a twister never touched down but the entire event left Eaton officials asking, are we 100 percent prepared if one does?

Emergency management officials ranging from the sheriff, dispatcher, chief of fire and chief of police invited 2NEWS to a meeting to a meeting to discuss different tactics used with the warnings.

"If we receive a tornado warning, one of our 911 centers, whether its at the sheriffs office or at the police department would set our emergency warning sirens off," said Chief Philip Romeo of the Eaton Police Department.

In the past, warnings where based on counties, meaning emergency management officials had to figure out which areas under the warning had to turn on the sirens. In larger counties a tornado warning could be active, but your area could have clear blue skies. In order to remedy this problem the National Weather Service now issues polygon warnings, where a warning is based on the storms path rather then by political boundary.

This means if you are under the warning you are at risk for seeing that severe weather. While your first alert can be found by listening to your NOAA weather radio, it can still be tricky to figure out exactly which areas are under the warning which can lead to issues when setting off the sirens.

While the internet is a great way to get that graphical information, there can be lag in some cases delaying the use of sirens. Right now the most up to the second way to get that warning data visually is by turning on WDTN the information can be found along with the crawl at the bottom of the screen.