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Lincoln Daily News.com
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL 62656
TEL: (217) 732-7443
FAX: (217) 732-9630
Lincoln Daily News publishes daily news about the Lincoln/Logan County area on
the Internet at www.lincolndailynews.com.
(We are not a print publication.) All subscriptions are free!
Content:
The articles published in
Lincoln Daily News are the result of
research, interviews and news releases submitted. Any opinions expressed are those of
the writers.
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In the office
Managing editor: Jan Youngquist
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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Mary Krallmann
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For employment information,
contact us.
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Our mission:
The mission of Lincoln Daily News is to tell the stories of Logan County in a contemporaneous manner, with lively writing and a predilection for simple truth fairly told.
Lincoln Daily News seeks a relationship with the good people of Logan County that is honest,
neighborly and never patronizing.
Lincoln Daily News presents news within a full context that contributes to understanding.
Lincoln Daily News is more interested in the marketplace of ideas than the competition of personalities.
Without shrinking from the bold delivery of unvarnished fact,
Lincoln Daily News operates from the premise that God's creatures deserve the presumption of right motive.
Lincoln Daily News eschews malice and cynicism; it approaches every person with dignity and every subject with equanimity. In short,
Lincoln Daily News informs, stimulates and entertains.
Corrections:
Please contact us by phone, fax, mail or e-mail with any
information about mistakes, typos or erroneous information. If the error is in an item
that is still in the paper, we will
correct it online immediately.
Our services:
Lincoln Daily News provides daily news, sports, features and commentary on Lincoln, Logan
County and the surrounding area.
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anniversaries and other good news. Call us for details.
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To
Lincoln Daily News:
Thanks for your contribution in making
the Community Health Fair on April 5 an overwhelming success.
We are estimating more than 1,400
people from the Lincoln-Logan County area visited this year's event.
More than 60 exhibitors set up displays, informational booths and/or
provided health screenings.
The continued success of the event
would not be possible without the support of the community. Another
BIG thank-you to each of you at Lincoln Daily News who helped
in promoting the event.
Thanks again for your continued
support, promotion and coverage of the health fair. Hopefully we can
enlist your help again next year.
Marcia
Greenslate and Marcia Dowling,
event coordinators
(posted 4-26-03) |
. Please send your letters by e-mail to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
or by U.S. postal mail to:
Letters to the Editor
Lincoln Daily News
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL 62656
Letters must include the writer's name,
telephone number, mailing address and/or e-mail address (we will not publish
address or phone number information).
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to edit letters to reduce their size or to correct obvious errors.
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to reject any letter for any
reason. Lincoln Daily News will publish as many
acceptable letters as space allows.
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How can we be ready for a disaster if
we have no warning that it may happen?
On Friday, April 4, 2003, a storm
loomed over Lincoln. Residents may have been aware of the tornado
warnings that were issued, but let me assure you that many schools
and businesses were unaware of the issued warning. I work on the
west side of town. I left work at 3 p.m. to pick my daughter up at
Zion Lutheran School, unaware that there had been a tornado warning
issued for Lincoln. I saw that the sky was dark but did not really
think of anything beyond a typical thunderstorm. I picked up my
daughter and returned to work at 3:10 p.m. Less than two minutes
later a gentleman entered our business and said the sky was green
over Wal-Mart and the clouds were swirling. Rain and hail were
coming down hard by now. Thirty seconds or so later the door to our
business was ripped opened by the wind, and debris began swirling. A
window was blown out of a truck in the parking lot next door. Three
to four minutes after all of this started, after the damage was done
to Zion, McDonald's and other places -- three to four minutes after
the "tornado" hit -- then the "warning siren" went off.
[to top of second column in
this letter]
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Please correct me if I am wrong, but it
is a "warning" siren, isn't it? Shouldn't it go off before the storm
hits, not after? If that storm had hit 10 minutes sooner, it would
have caught WL-B and ZLS right in the middle of dismissal, and we
could have lost lives. It took a phone call from a concerned parent
whose child stayed after school for track practice to make the
school aware of the potential for a tornado. The school took action
and got the children and parents inside to safety. As it was, five
vans and one car sustained damage in the parking lot of ZLS, plus
some structural damage was sustained. Had this parent not called,
who knows what may have happened?
Shouldn't there be a plan in effect
that would warn the schools and businesses that do not have weather
radios or televisions? Unless you have a TV or radio, you have no
way of knowing a tornado may be on the horizon. There were four
mobile home parks in the path of this storm. They had no warning
unless they happened to be watching TV or listening to the radio.
Shouldn't the siren go off before the storm hits? How can we take
shelter if we have no warning?
Christie Huskins
Lincoln
(posted 4-26-03) |
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Dear
Lincoln Daily News:
We at Logan County ESDA office would
like to elaborate on how we specifically assist communities in the
activation of their outdoor warning sirens. First of all, these
sirens are not just meant for storm warnings. Several years ago they
were primarily put in service for wartime.
Today they are also used in chemical
warnings and to assist in severe outdoor weather warnings, if
possible. Our office works in conjunction with every municipality
that has storm spotters to assist in setting off the sirens as
severe weather approaches. Emergency managers or department heads in
your municipality can also order the activation of the sirens at any
time.
As a storm approaches, the four things
that activate the outdoor weather sirens are tornado, funnel cloud
or wall cloud headed for a metropolitan area; the fourth thing is
when winds sustain (not gusts) 55 mph. That is what happened
on April 4 of this year. When the winds reached 55 mph the sirens
were immediately activated.
You must also remember that a
microburst is a storm that develops and erupts from that point
forward. There is no
early detection
of a microburst as there is with
the signature storm of a funnel
cloud or tornado that has a visual effect. Microbursts cannot be
detected before they strike -- similar to lightning. Out of a severe
thunderstorm you cannot detect where lightning is going to strike,
the same way you cannot detect when a microburst will strike. Even
though a microburst is very rare, we now see that they do happen.
Pay attention to severe thunderstorm warnings.
[to top of second column in
this letter]
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In 2001 Logan County ESDA received a
STAR Grant that allowed us to place weather warning radios
throughout the county. Every school was offered these radios and all
accepted them except one, which already had their own system. We
also offered the radios to any pertinent gathering places and all
fire departments throughout the county. We are now checking schools
and finding that many have not changed their batteries, they are not
on, or not working, or don’t have an attendant monitoring it. Make
sure your local school is using the radio and has someone attending
it. Any school or business can call our office if there is a problem
with an approaching storm. It is impossible for us to phone and/or
contact every business and school as a storm approaches.
Logan County ESDA offers an annual
weather spotters class free to the public. This was given on March
28, 2003. The National Weather Service issues the alerts. ESDA
weather spotters are activated when NWS issues weather watches. Just
as you have a smoke detector and a CO detector for your safety in
the home, we recommend that you also have a weather radio and change
the batteries twice a year. Please remember that the person that can
help keep you the safest from any emergency is you.
We hope this clarifies any questions
that you may have. We are definitely here for the protection of the
citizens.
If you have any further questions, you
may call Logan County ESDA, 732-9491.
Logan County ESDA
(posted 4-26-03) |
