Tornado Warning Glitches: Belton's False All-Clear

0:00On April 17, an EF-1 tornado ripped through Belton and Cass County, touching down at 5.19 pm, with winds up to 110 miles per hour, a carb to 2 mile path, damaging roofs, trees, and even gravestones at the local cemetery. No one got hurt, but here's the wild part. Five emergency alerts hit people's phones, texts, and emails, saying the tornado warning was canceled, right? As the storm was raging, those alerts came through Everbridge, the counties of emergency platform, starting just five minutes after the initial warning at 5.14 pm. The National Weather Service warning from Pleasant Hill was still active, no cancellation on their end. In 17 minutes flat, the all-clear message is repeated five times, clashing hard with sirens and live weather updates. Folks in Belton were thrown off sirens blaring, power flickering out, debris flying, yet alerts claiming it was over. Some hunkered down anyway, trusting TV, apps, or radios over the glitchy notices.

1:03Officials worry that in a stronger storm, people might have bailed from shelters and faced real danger. Now, Cass County's Emergency Services Board, the National Weather Service, and Everbridge are digging into what went wrong. The boards filed a priority support ticket, they've used the system over five years without hiccups, paying about $51,000 annually. AWS confirmed their data looked clean, shared everything to help troubleshoot. Experts say don't rely on one-source mix, local media, weather apps, radios, and wireless alerts to stay safe. Updates should drop soon as the probe wraps, keeping everyone sharper for the next twister. I'm Corey with The Story, and you've been listening to Kansas News today, AI-powered local news.