*IndyMeso*

Seeing some impressive pictures of hail on social media around Indy. I got a gust of wind so... score I guess. I shouldn't complain. I would rather have nothing than golf ball and larger sized hail hitting my car.

Felt it pretty good here in Noblesville. Sounded like a huge gust of wind hit the building but when my monitor started shaking like crazy, I knew it was an earthquake.

Yeah, they were going at a high rate of speed to try and keep up/get out of the way.

And they might have just wrecked getting away from the storm. Oh my god. Stream cut out as they were trying to pass a car to the left and the car merged into the lane. I hope they make it out ok

Steven MacLeroy is trying to catch up with it. Said its a massive tornado. They went through Brent just minutes earlier. They are insanely close. Too close for comfort

Good God they are lucky to be alive

Sounds like those employees in that building took shelter in the bathroom. Glad they did. I see he also spoke to someone with a busted window in their car. That was making me most nervous watching his stream... all those cars driving right into the path of that thing.

Matt Grantham has damage in Indian Springs

He got insanely close. That thing was directed right at him while he was telling a bystander to get in a building. Great footage but wow, he is lucky.

Yeah, we had a fair coating here in Hamilton County (maybe around 0.10). Roads were decent but anything elevated was fair game. Once the rain ended, it was backed with strong winds which brought down limbs. Also hearing some downed power lines in lots of areas especially in Lafayette. Didn't lose power here but it flickered several times.

I don't work for NWS but I know how frustrating it can be to see it. You, and several other red taggers in this subforum, provide some great information. We are lucky to have you. To those that are so quick to toss the NWS and all their hard work, we see you. For one second, just put yourself in their shoes and then make your judgment. Anyways, off my soapbox and back to the good stuff...

Not really sure how much longer I'll have power here in Noblesville. Been flickering on and off for better part of the last 3 hours and the numbers around me are growing rapidly. I guess that's been the case for most around and north of 70. Everything is coated in just the slightest glaze and you can hear things starting to creak with the wind. Will see if I can get out to get an idea of how much ice has accumulated.

Just got a strike right behind my place. Lots of curse words involved.

Yep, taking direct aim on me; live right on the Fishers/Noblesville line. Already seen some really intense vivid lightning pretty far out. Let's see if the power lasts...

I think that could work. I mean obviously it helped people when the siren sounded the second time so maybe if the siren is constantly sounding, people may (and hopefully) take it very seriously. You know what it kind reminds me of is "Night of the Twisters". I think in some point in the book and/or movie someone says "no the sirens are going off again, there's a tornado coming" or something to that effect. Haha I know I am a geek but it was the perfect movie when I got in my weather nerd phase when I was little. But nonetheless, they took the siren seriously and went to the basement.

That's what I would have thought too. But, I guess in his defense, as stated in the assessment, the first siren was set off at 5:11 CDT for 3 minutes. Then at 5:34 CDT, the tornado touched down and at 5:38 the second 3 minute siren was sounded by the emergency manager once he heard reported that a tornado was moving into Joplin. So, essentially he did not know there was a tornado on the ground until much later after the initial warning. It's a toss-up when it comes to how long they should sound. Maybe when there is a legit threat (like a history of producing a confirmed tornado or something to that effect) maybe sound them for 4-5 minutes instead of 3. This might make people aware that this is a legitimate threat. I don't know just kinda thinking outloud on that one.

Absolutely agree. I see you are from Wilmington... do you work for the NWS Office? To further add on to your Point A idea, I do think it was a brilliant move on the emergency manager's decision to sound the siren a second time. However, I found it interesting that the sirens were only set off for 3 minutes and then were shut off the first time. The assessment stated that this caused people to become confused over the siren alert time period and thought that the threat had ended. In regards to activating the siren a second time, people had indicated that this raised their level of awareness, confirmed the alert, and then sought shelter. I honestly hope this is an action that is not taken lightly for I believe that if emergency managers start sounding the sirens a second time during a tornado warning, people will become complacent with that.

This is something that has been brought up as well. Do counties start testing the sirens only once a month instead of every week? I personally think it would help cut down the idea that sirens happen all time however, it would be an adjustment for people who are accustomed to hearing them go off once a week. It will be exciting to learn more about these issue in the upcoming future thats for sure.

That could be a part of it. I guess the concern is that people are saying they are confused by what the siren is meaning. For example, here in Indiana there are several counties that had or have a policy with their sirens that state the sirens will be sounded when a tornado warning is issued during a tornado watch, if a severe thunderstorms warning is issued while under a tornado watch, or even if there is a hazardous material release and evacuations are in place. Now, there are some counties (inluding Marion County involving the city of Indianapolis) that have changed their policy so that the sirens are only sounded when a tornado warning has been issued during a tornado watch or a tornado has been spotted by trained spotters. Now, from this point forward, hopefully we can get the other counties to re-evaluate their policies and make it a unified deal. But, we have already had some push-backs with some counties. Honestly, there is no correct way to go about going about changing things so people can abide by them but the most we can do is be flexible. I think there is a lot of things to learn from Joplin thats for sure. Maybe the bigger deal is that people have just become too complacent with the sirens. LIke said in the assessment, people said the sirens sound all the time and nothing ever happens. Its frustrating from a meteorologist's standpoint for sure. Unfortunately I think sometimes it takes an event like Joplin to make people aware that it can happen anywhere at any time.

Well at this point, and again, they are not looking towards removing the siren system completely. Too many people rely on it. It may not be for the reason that they were made for (I.e. a resident stating that they use the siren to make sure their clocks are set at 11:00 exactly...yeesh), but they are outdoor sirens. I think a general movement for the IWT is to add on to the siren system. Some of the broadcast meteorologists were stating that they are seeing a lot more people tune in when maybe a warning is set off in the area. So, like stated in the assessment, instead of seeking shelter immediately people are tuning into media first to get confirmation. So the question is, how can we expand on that? Another major subject that was brought up was the lack of standard policies for each county in Indiana when it comes to sounding the sirens. There is a lot of confusion for people because each county has a different policy. The growing trend is to sound the sirens when a tornado warning has been issued when a tornado watch is in place or if a tornado has been spotted by trained spotters. This is not the case for every county though.

I attended an Integrated Warning Team conference a few weeks back that addressed these issues to the core. It is becoming clear that people are becoming complacent with sirens and most do not seek shelter at the first run of a siren. So, this conference addressed that issue and asked "what can we do to make sure people are still taking warnings and watches seriously?" The conference was filled with various people; some from the State of Indiana (IDHS), local emergency managers, NWS (Indy, Northern Indiana, Paducah I believe, and Wilmington), broadcast meteorologists, and various others. Each had an interesting point of view on what the next steps should be. Some believed that the siren system should be removed completely, others believed that sirens should not be removed (for some still rely on them completely), but other means of notification should be made. Another interesting topic that was brought up in the conference was education to the public. It is going to be a nice start for us to begin a survey, distributed to the public, that asks them how they perceive watches and warnings and the actions that they take. It might also be good to know what the public would like to see if they are not going to take each warning seriously. I could go on and on forever about this conference but the assessment has really highlighted the points that were brought up here in Indiana. A lot of things to discuss in the future, that's for sure.

I am not sure if this was posted but I found this on a Facebook page. http://thedailywh.at/2011/07/13/before-and-after-of-the-day-3/ Creative way of a before and after view. What got me was the drive over the hill at about 1:05 and coming upon the massive damage.