NWS Southern Region Director Bill Proenza poses with Caledonia Community Hero Award recipients Cindy Lawrence and Mike Putnam (Photo: WFO Jackson)
(April 8, 2008) - With government officials, media and more than 700 Caledonia, Miss. school students on hand to witness the ceremony, National Weather Service Southern Region Director Bill Proenza honored school Principal Mike Putnam and Lowndes County Emergency Manager Cindy Lawrence as National Weather Service community heroes.
He presented them with community hero certificates for their life-saving actions when a powerful tornado ripped through the school complex on January 10.
At 1:32 p.m., the National Weather Service forecast office in Jackson issued a Tornado Warning for Lowndes County, including Caledonia.
Within minutes, Lawrence followed up with a call to the school noting the Jackson office projected the tornado would impact the community at about 2:05 p.m. An updated "path-cast" extended the time to 2:10 p.m. and Lawrence immediately passed that on to the school.
Meanwhile, Putnam had already activated the school's tornado safety plan with the initial warning. After receiving notification of the Tornado Warning from a variety of sources, including a weather radio, a nearby outdoor siren and local television reports, he immediately placed 85 students in the gym locker rooms and another 30 in an interior room in the tech center.
More than 700 students attend Caledonia school ceremony (Photo: Karen White, WFO Jackson)
When he received word of the extra lead time provided by the Jackson forecast office, Putnam made the critical, life-saving decision to move all of the students from the nominally safe areas they were in, to the "safer" hallways of the main building.
While the tornado ultimately destroyed the gymnasium and tech building, the main building was unscathed and none of the 2,140 students and employees sheltering in it were injured.
Following the recognition ceremony, Proenza spoke to eye witnesses who noted the Caledonia school event was not the only success story that day.
He said some daycare workers recounted how the National Weather Service warning allowed them time to get 15 children and four adults into their storm shelter. When they emerged, they were stunned to see their daycare facility was completely destroyed.
"Again, lives were saved," added Proenza. "Without the timely warning, this could easily have been a national tragedy."
Caledonia school complex tornado damage (Photo: Brian Peters, ABC-3340 TV, Birmingham, Ala.)