Kansas City, Missouri – People need to pay attention to severe storm warnings, even though it may seem unnecessary.
Severe weather yesterday caused at least one tornado to touch down around 151st and Metcal in South Johnson County, and another around Harrisonville, according to law enforcement officers. Area police departments dispatched officers and trained storm spotters to the periphery of the county to file weather reports and check on residents and businesses.
Sirens starting blaring about 11 throughout the suburbs and center city , and the weather service gave constant updates, including mile markers of major highways where the storm was hitting hardest.
But many ignore warnings. Many go outside to sky watch.
Seargent Brad Robbins with the Leawood police department says its hard to be utterly precise about extreme weather forecasts, but emergency officials are conservative; "It's an inexact science, you don't know how fast they're moving how quickly they're moving. There are a lot of variables to it so we try and get the alerts and warnings out as quickly as possible."
In Sedelia, 15 people were taken to hospitals. Injuries were reported to be minor, but the tornado caused extensive damage to Sedalia's homes and businesses.
