LETTERS: CITY NEEDS STORM-WARNING SYSTEM

To the editor:

My wife and I returned to live in Cape Girardeau in 1992 after having lived in Kirkwood 26 years. The changes in our hometown during those years were pretty dramatic. We thought the city had done a great job improving its parks and adding new ones. The city must hold a national record for the number of lighted baseball, softball and soccer fields. The city even found the money to buy an old bank building to house a convention and tourism office, and now we are going to add a Mississippi River museum and another park in the North Sprigg Street area.

We support all of the above, because we think they enhance the quality of life in our community. What we do not understand is how our City Council can give any of these projects a higher priority than public safety. I refer to the fact that Cape Girardeau has no severe storm-warning system. I have discussed this concern with three members of our City Council, and the standard response has been that some years ago the city bought a warning system, and it did not work. My response to this rationale is that somebody did not do his homework before it was purchased. Another argument is that Cape is too hilly for such a system to be effective. Kirkwood is just as hilly, and the system there works fine. Severe storms do not always occur during daylight hours, and most of us do not have a radio or TV set on between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

We were living her May 19, 1949, when the city was hit by a tornado that took 22 lives, injured hundreds and destroyed several hundred homes and business buildings. That was at about 6 p.m. on a Saturday evening.

Like the New Madrid earthquake, it is not a question of if we will be hit again. It is only a question of when. I hope we are prepared.

JOHN MILLER

Cape Girardeau