Severe Weather Preparedness

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Be prepared
Your actions before and during severe weather, including a tornado, may save lives. In 2003, eastern Kansas experienced one of the most intense tornado outbreaks in several years. Two of six tornadoes that touched down in eastern Kansas on May 4, 2003, strengthened to violent tornadoes, rating F4 on the Fujita tornado damage scale.
No matter where you are on campus, do some advance planning for threatening storms. This resource guide will help you identify protective areas in each building on campus where you can quickly take shelter when severe weather threatens or a tornado warning is issued.

Watch vs. warning
A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for a tornado in our area.

• Remain alert for approaching storms
• Listen to local radio or TV for updates
• Be prepared to move to shelter

A tornado warning means a tornado has been sighted or is indicated by weather radar.

If you’re indoors

• Go immediately to the shelter areas indicated in each building (listed at right and posted on each floor of every campus building).
• DO NOT pull the fire alarm
• Stay away from windows and glass
• Stay in your shelter area until the storm has passed and you are advised that it is safe to leave the building or return to classrooms or offices.

If you’re OUTSIDE

• If possible, get inside a building at once.
• If you can’t get to a shelter, lie in a ditch or low-lying area, and use your hands to cover your head.
• Be aware of the potential for flying debris and flooding, and stay away from glass, small buildings, and fencing.
• If you are in a vehicle, get out and into a building, or, if there is no time, lie in a ditch or other low-lying area.

Building shelter areas
With the assistance of Olathe’s emergency preparedness staff, tornado shelter areas have been identified in each campus building. These locations are also identified on signage posted in a central area on each floor of every building on campus.
Campus Center: dining room (get on floor); walkways (get on floor); President’s Dining Room (overflow and staff)
College Church: basement under Uphaus Hall (Downhaus); choir room
Colony West: downstairs hallway; ping pong room; downstairs restrooms; downstairs lounge
Cook Center: locker rooms; locker room hallway (load to fire doors); interior classrooms; classroom hallway (load to fire doors)
Dobson Hall: small corridor to women’s restroom; restrooms; interior sound-proofed offices
Draper: first floor bathrooms in apartments; recreation room restrooms in basement
Eby Building: first floor bathrooms and kitchen area of MBA offices
Field House: evacuate to Cook Center
Gilliland: restroom
Land Gym: restrooms (if time allows, evacuate to Campus Center)
Lanpher: basement
Lunn Hall: Lunn Conference Room
Mabee Library: basement or evacuate to Cook Center
Metz Hall: Room 121 and Business Division office area; first-level restrooms
Mur-Len Office Building: restrooms and interior offices without windows
Osborne Hall: first-floor restrooms (if time allows, evacuate to Lunn Hall)
Pioneer Stadium: evacuate to Cook Center
Ramsey: first floor bathrooms
Rice: main floor restrooms; laundry rooms; prayer rooms
Smith Hall: first-floor restrooms; chaplain’s lounge area; Religion and Humanities Division waiting areas; interior offices.
Snowbarger: evacuate to Lanpher basement
Spindle: basement laundry rooms; basement hallways; basement suite living rooms.
Stockton: main floor restrooms; laundry rooms; prayer rooms
Uphaus: downstairs hallway; interior restrooms on levels 1 and 2
Weatherby Chapel: restrooms

Campus alert system
Each building on campus has a designated building coordinator trained to alert building occupants of a tornado warning and direct them to the appropriate shelter location.
Each building coordinator has a NOAA weather radio that receives continuous broadcasts of updated weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service. The NOAA radio sounds an alert signal when watches and warnings are issued.
Building coordinators will signal the need to move quickly to shelter by sounding three blasts on an air horn in rapid succession. You should move calmly, but quickly to the designated shelter area in your building.
The building coordinator will take the battery-operated NOAA weather radio to the shelter area. Stay in the designated shelter area until the building coordinator indicates that it is safe to leave the building or return to offices, classrooms or dorm rooms.

Tornado drills
Although tornadoes can occur at any time of the year, the peak tornado occurrence for the Great Plains is in April through June, often occurring between 3 and 9 p.m.
Once per semester MNU will conduct tornado drills designed to prepare students, faculty and staff in the event of a tornado event. Drills will be conducted on multiple days and at various times of day in order to provide both day and evening students with an opportunity to be prepared. We hope you’ll view these drills as an important opportunity to prepare in the event of an actual tornado emergency.

Tornado sirens
The City of Olathe performs a monthly test of tornado sirens on the first Wednesday of the month at 11 a.m., unless severe weather is threatening the area. No tests are performed in December or January. In March the date of the test is scheduled during Severe Weather Awareness Week. Remember, tornado sirens are an outdoor warning system only. They are not designed to warn people indoors.
The first sound on the siren system is a solid steady tone used to indicate a tornado warning. The second tone tested has a high-low or wavering sound and indicates a national emergency. On test days Johnson County Emergency Management tests each tone for one minute. There is no “all clear” signal on the outdoor warning system.
The City of Olathe has 26 outdoor warning sirens. Nineteen sirens are equipped with a two-way monitoring system that allows for quiet testing.
If you have questions about tornado preparedness or any other emergency preparedness issues at MNU, please contact Dwight Douglas, crisis management coordinator for the University, at ddouglas@mnu.edu or by calling (913) 971-3280.