By Bryan Richarson
A tornado hit northern Riley County early Thursday evening with wind speeds reaching 120 miles per hour, but the area wasn’t under a tornado watch and some residents reported not hearing sirens.
Why?
Emergency Management Director Russel Stukey explained the circumstances to county commissioners Monday morning.
As far as the lack of tornado watch, Stukey said the Storm Prediction Center, headquartered in Oklahoma, didn’t issue one after measuring a less than 2% chance for a tornado, “which is relatively low risk for this time of the year.”
“It literally came up out of nowhere,” he said. “Some people made the comment, ‘Well, if it was bigger, it could’ve been a whole lot worse.’ That’s true, but if it was bigger, they probably would’ve seen it. Kind of a needle in a haystack type of thing.”
