SIOUX CITY, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — Storm spotters play a key role with Woodbury County Emergency Management when severe weather threatens Woodbury County and the Siouxland area.
The Woodbury County Emergency Management facilities are on the campus of Western Iowa Tech Community College. Representatives there will stay in constant contact with the National Weather Service, local meteorologists, and, of course, storm spotters.
Once severe weather is recognized, emergency management starts to bring in people to help follow the storm and track damage. They will also monitor local television stations and social media for storm and damage reports.
Before emergency management can react, they have to have the right data to respond correctly.
“The first step is to access,” coordinator Michael Montino said. “Are there injuries? Is there property damage? That’s going to determine what it is that we are going to do next. We have several outstanding Facebook pages in the Siouxland area where people post photos of damages such as trees down or things that may have been blown over in the event of a storm and that helps us gauge.”
Montino said that along with social media, emergency managers use tools including local news stations and radar to monitor a storm and make decisions about a response.