SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.- Nearly three weeks after a deadly tornado struck Delaware many victims are still questioning why they did not receive an emergency alert before the twister hit.
According to several community members, they had little to no warning that the EF-3 tornado was coming through.
Henry Cannon of Bridgeville said his property, including his farm, was left in ruins. Though he did not receive word of a tornado until it had already wreaked havoc.
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA’s) are sent by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the event of a sudden extreme weather event such as the recent tornado.
According to Delaware's Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) the NWS is aware that a WEA was not broadcast for a tornado warning that the agency broadcast at 6:01pm EDT April 1 for portions of northern Sussex and far southern Kent County.
In a statement, the NWS said they believe "a contributing factor for the emergency alert not being broadcast on the WEA system was a time synchronization issue between two computer servers used for our Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) data stream."
Despite the issue, NWS was still able to distribute a warning through their weather radio and website.
Other community members such as Deborah Monzo, think Delaware should consider implementing tornado sirens to give people a fighting chance to seek shelter.
"Even if they just put them at the fire station in town where they have those fire whistles they can have one that's louder for tornadoes that would tell most of the people at least in the close areas to get in the basement." Monzo said, recalling a similar system in Nashville, Tennessee, where she used to live.
However, a spokesperson for DEMA argues that since the state only averages one tornado per year, sirens wouldn't make much sense.
DEMA told WBOC the best way to stay informed of severe weather events such as tornadoes or hurricanes is to have multiple ways to receive communications, including local media outlets, local emergency alerting services, NOAA Weather Radio, and third-party applications.