NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2006
NATIONAL SEVERE WEATHER WEEK
sighed separate indeeded the
een
renderer"
csss'
ed in
ts in
Generated Press
Storm safety essential
ment activ-
Stauffer
hurrying the
holidays.
ans of are
55 Jayhawk
Week to stress storm awareness
BY CATHERINE ODSON
codson@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Matt Ubben found himself in an unusual viewing locale for Sunday morning's storm: indoors.
A five-year veteran of storm chasing, Ubben, Rosehill junior, awoke Sunday morning to a crash on his window, followed soon after by sirens. His curiosity convinced him to go outside. The weather Sunday morning, cool and dry, did not seem right for a severe storm, he said.
The Sunday morning storm kicked off Severe Weather Awareness Week in Kansas. Jennifer Stark, a meteorologist with the Topeka National Weather Service, will present the week's highlight, a Weather 101 lecture, at 7:00 tonight at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hamshire.
The KU chapter of the American Meteorological Society will be presenting information about severe weather in Kansas on Wescoe Beach all week to raise awareness of severe weather safety practices, especially among out of state students.
"It's Kansas and severe weather does happen," said Alex Perkins, AMS president.
While AMS can advocate severe weather awareness, the group itself isn't officially allowed go storm chasing or storm spotting. Donna Tucker, associate professor of geography, said organized storm chasing has been prohibited within KU organizations since before she joined the faculty in 1993.
"Storm chasing is a dangerous activity." Tucker said. She said it made perfect sense to her why the University avoided the liability of endorsing student
storm chasers.
Storm chasing poses dangers even to experienced meteorologists, said Curt Holderbach, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Topeka. The reasons for untrained spotters and chasers to stay away from severe storms range from strong winds to lightning and hail, he said.
Trained spotters work in conjunction with the National Weather Service and local emergency officials, such as Douglas County Emergency Management, Douglas County requires visual confirmation of a tornado by a spotter or law enforcement officer to sound the tornado sirens.
Spotters go through extensive training, including a spotter talk like tonight's Weather 101 lecture, and learn how to handle various weather situations, according to Mark Cairns, Douglas County Emergency Management duty officer and former spotter.
"You're trained to look for more than one way out," he said.
Chasers take more risks than spotters, Cairns said.
"Those people are really crazy." he said.
Perkins has never chased a storm,but wants to in the future.She said her background as an atmospheric science major would help her know which situations to avoid.
Before Ubben started chasing, he attended a spotter talk, similar to tonight's lecture, but said the best learning experience was working with experienced chasers. In his five years of chasing, he's seen three tornadoes and countless funnel clouds.
"It's one of the biggest rushes I've ever experienced," he said.
— Edited by Matt Wilson
Tuesday's test a success after earlier worries
Lawrence's sirens sounded without fail during the statewide tornado drill yesterday afternoon, quelling concerns about their effectiveness Sunday.
The questions arose over the siren's condition Sunday afternoon when Lawrence police officers began issuing severe weather warnings from their patrol cars, a practice that Baby Newton, Douglas County Emergency Management duty officer, said Lawrence officials used prior to the installation of outdoor tornado sirens.
A siren maintenance company arrived Sunday afternoon after county officials were unable to confirm if the sirens went off during the early morning storm. The company repaired an antenna used to transmit and receive messages from the individual sirens, but concluded that the sirens had sounded and were in working condition for the entire day.
Lawrence's sirens sounded after the storm hit because Douglas County Emergency Management requires visual confirmation of a tornado either by a trained spotter or law enforcement official before sirens will be sounded, said Mark Cairns, Douglas County Emergency Management duty officer. The department received a spotter report at 8:07 a.m. and sounded the sirens at 8:08 a.m.
Sirens are not used in cases of severe thunderstorm warnings because people would stop paying attention to the recurrent warnings, Newton said.
Douglas County reserves the sirens for "take cover" situations and don't mean "go outside and look," he said.
Residents should refer to local media for an indication of when it's safe to resume normal activity.
Catherine Odson
Rescuing Flubber
Wilfredo Lee/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AWARDS Kansan receives four awards at conference
"Overall, the awards served as a reminder of what a quality paper we have here and how far above and beyond national papers we are in all the aspects of advertising" said Ari Ben, Kansan business manager.
Mike Mostaffa
College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers Inc. formed in 1972.Today the organization has more than 125 member schools nationwide.This was the 34th annual conference.
The advertising department won first place awards for trendsetting and newspaper promotion ad in color.The department also won a second place award for best training program and third place for best electronic banner ad for house circulation more than 40,000.
The University Daily Kansan advertising department received four awards at the 2006 College Newpaper Business and Advertising Managers conference held in Philadelphia this weekend.
Steve Diggs, operations manager with Quality Portable X-Rey, x-rays an injured manatee Tuesday at the Miami Seaquarium on Virginia Key in Miami. The manatee, nicknamed Flubber, was rescued off a canal near Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where it was found emaciated and suffering from propeller injuries.
David M. Katzman and William M. Tuttle, professors of American studies, will discuss "A People and a Nation: A History of the United States," a book they contributed to that emphasizes social history and gives particular attention to race and racial identity.
Vicky Unruh, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, will discuss her book "Performing Women and Modern Literary Culture in Latin America", which explores how women writers gained access to literary life as
CAMPUS Event to honor faculty book publishers at KU
The Hall Center for the Humanities' Fourth Annual Celebration of Books will honor 25 KU faculty members from the humanities, social sciences and fine arts departments, who published 30 books in the past year.
According to a University of Kansas press release, the event is free and will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in the Hall Center. Four faculty members will talk about their books and take audience questions.
public performers.
Garth Myers, associate professor of geography and African studies, will discus his book "Disposable Cities: Garbage, Governance and Sustainable Development in Urban Africa," which provides critical analysis of the United Nations Sustainable Cities Program in Africa.
For more information, email hallcenter@ku.edu or call (785) 864-4798.
Sellberg is the assistant university librarian for technical services at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. She gave a public presentation and attended a public reception on Monday.
Roxanne Sellberg has been announced as the first of five candidates for the dean of libraries position.
First dean of libraries candidate announced
— Mike Mostaffa
The new dean of libraries, who will begin work by August, will oversee a $15 million annual budget, 180 staff members and 250 students.
— Melinda Ricketts