This is Severe Weather Awareness Week in South Dakota, a time when communities help prepare residents for the upcoming storm season.  This includes determining where safe areas are, meeting places after an event, and checking emergency plans and disaster kits.  For Yankton County Emergency Management Manager, Paul Scherschligt, it also means testing the area’s sirens.

This Wednesday, the National Weather Service will be issuing a mock tornado watch at 10:00 am.  At 10:15, that will become a mock tornado warning, and the sirens will be blown for the full three minutes…

 

Scherschligt says the testing is necessary to make sure sirens work before the time comes that they might actually be needed in an emergency.