Better warnings when a twister approaches

Davon Gray
Published: June 9, 2008

Last Wednesday, I got a frantic phone message on my cell phone from my wife. The nervous tone of her voice said it all, “there is a tornado warning in Southeastern Prince William County, I think you had better pay attention to the news.”

The problem was I got the message about an hour later because I was teaching kids at our local church and my phone was off.  Clearly, I could see it was bad outside, but I had no idea there was a tornado in the vicinity.

The good news is that other than wind damage, I don’t think anyone in our area was hurt.  Tragically, in Fairfax, one man was killed.

Despite our good fortunes during this storm, we may not be so fortunate in the future. That is why we need some type of early warning system for storms like the one last Thursday. 

Growing up in Mississippi, tornados were a yearly occurrence.  Every year it seemed we were good for at least one tornado in the area. 

The local schools even ran tornado drills. I don’t know if they do that in the schools here in Prince William County, but clearly that may be something to think about in the future. 

But the thing I remember most was the whistle. The pulsating sound of the emergency weather whistle meant something, most likely a tornado, was happening.  Everyone knew to seek shelter.

Over the last two or three years it seems like we have had more tornados coming into our area, especially in Stafford and Prince William County. 

Maybe its time we invest in having the kind of warning whistles that they use in small town America. 

You might say that we have our televisions or radios in our cars and we can just tune into them.  But aren’t most people taught to turn the television off during a storm — due to the possibility of attracting
lighting. 

And as for a car, that is the last place you want to be during a possible tornado.

The ideal situation would be to have your radio on in your house.  But like with most of these storms, the power was out for a lot of people. That takes away the option of both television and radio. 

Given the fact that most of Prince William County is residential housing, the idea of an emergency weather warning system makes sense. If you were to hear the whistle sound off, you would at least
know something is coming and know to turn on a television, radio or just seek shelter. Such a system is proven to save lives. 

I think it’s great that our local television and radio stations have Doppler radar where they can tell almost what street a rain shower is on. But again that only helps if you are listening to the television or
radio. 

Any meteorologist would tell you the more warning you get the better when a tornado is in the area. Like I said before, we have been fortunate so far. 

But we have seen what the worst can look like in places like LaPlata, Maryland, where an F4 tornado caused four deaths, or in countless other small towns in midwest America. Anyone living in the south
has seen their fair share of tornado tragedies.

A system of warning whistles in our area, set up throughout the county, just makes sense. The whistles would not save anyone’s property, but most likely they would save lives. 

Even if it saved one life, the cost and the effort of having such a system would be worth it. The fact that we keep getting these types of storms over recent years is warning enough that something should
be done.

Davon Gray works in Washington, D.C., and resides in Woodbridge. Contact him at