USA: Warnings credited in Midwest tornado outbreak

Questioning the complacence of Midwesterners after repeated tornado warnings came to nothing, the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center issued a sternly worded alert, well in advance of a possible "high-end, life-threatening event." "People become used to those warnings. That is a dangerous complacency," said Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan, as reported by Grant Schulte for Associated Press. "We need to break through the clutter of everyday noise to get people's attention."

Though he was pleased the warnings were heeded, the prediction center's Ken Miller warned, "We can't do this with every event," noting that it's not easy to predict which storm systems could pose a threat to life and property. "We measure our success by how the public reacts," he said.