With a winter storm rallying to take over and disrupt lives across mid-America, one of the things we are doing here at the Chasing4Life Tracking Center is contacting the team, setting up response plans and making sure that we have monitors placed so that we can report to the KRVN news crew throughout the storm as accurately as possible.
In the midst of all this, I chose to call a few friends and family that are dispersed from Nebraska to Indiana. My brother-in-law was grateful for the forecast as he was planning a trip to Milwaukee Tuesday and Wednesday. A friend in the Chicagoland suburbs immediately made plans to stay with a friend that has a generator.
2 friends stood out tonight as a lesson to learn from.
When I called with the forecast, quoting forecast models and explaining the dynamics of the storm, both said they had only heard what was on television and it did not sound too bad.
After a few minutes, Friend #1 thanked me and asked for help in creating a list of what she will need to have over the next few days.
Friend #2 also said she had been listening to the television and said the forecast did not sound too bad. Before I could explain thye potential of the storm, she said she would keep watching TV and was sure she would be fine.
She is wrong. You see, she gets metro TV stations and news where she lives, yet she lives in an outlying area, very open to the weather, and in an area that forecast models are showing to be at the highest risk the next few days.
Folks, please read the blog below this one and learn the lesson now before its too late. Most of Nebraska is rural, and we are at the mercy of broadcasting stations that HAVE to cater to the larger population that surrounds them FIRST. While a metro station may be telling its listeners to prepare for 6 inches of snow, the family 19 miles to the north on a gravel road can bet on 9 inches and drifting.
Do not look at this week's weather lightly, and make sure you stay INFORMED correctly. Use as many sources as you can for forecasting the weather for WHERE YOU ARE yourself. Visit the National Weather Service website for North Platte or Hastings today. Spend some time reading. You may not understand it all, but this is only the FIRST real storm of the season...might as well learn now.
As for KRVN...we have a team of professionals that will be spending a lot of time out in the field over the next few days to bring you the best updates we can. We're focused on where YOU live...keep us tuned in.
A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO ETHAN FOR HELPING LOAD FIREWOOD IN THE HOUSE. YOU SAVED AN OLD MAN'S BACK. YOU'RE A GOOD MAN.
