By Tom Schardin, Correspondent 

Ten years ago, the city of Savage lost an estimated 8,000 trees in two severe storms 15 days apart that Savage Fire Chief Joel McColl said were the worst he’s seen since joining the department in 1985.

In light of that, McColl said Severe Weather Awareness Week, which starts Monday, April 21, shouldn’t be taken for granted. The week wasn’t a result of those devastating 1998 storms with straight-line winds up to 100 mph. But it should serve as a reminder of the power of Mother Nature.

The highlight of the week is a state-wide tornado drill on Thursday, April 24. (See accompanying story for other activities during the week). During the week, residents are asked to consider the following:

Do you have an emergency kit available that includes a flashlight, batteries, radio, food and water?

Have you prepared your family on where to go when severe weather strikes?

Do you know when and why Savage sounds its warning sirens?

“I do think people take severe weather more seriously these days,” said Bob Reid, the emergency coordinator for Scott County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES). “People need to take some responsibility when there’s a big storm by sticking their head outside and see what’s going on. You should always pay attention to the weather.”

McColl said the city has changed its policy the last few years when it comes to sounding warning sirens. It used to be they were set off when 70 mph winds were sustained for two minutes or more, but McColl said that was “unrealistic.”

“We went away from standards by the county and state because people at those dispatch centers don’t always know what’s going on in our community,” he said. “The sirens are only designed to notify people outside that something has happened in the community or is about to happen. That’s only thing that sirens are designed for.”

McColl said there’s no “magical trigger mechanism” to sound the sirens. It’s all based on conditions. He said last year when a severe storm was moving through southern Scott County from west to east, the sirens in Savage did not go off even though the entire county was under a tornado warning by the National Weather Service.

“We were monitoring the weather,” said McColl. “That storm did not affect us in the northern part of the county, so the sirens did not go off.”

Scott County ARES also assists with severe weather spotting through Metro Skywarn, an organization of radio operators and weather enthusiasts with interests in severe weather spotting and communications as a public service.Reid said roughly 20 amateur radio operators in Scott County ARES are all trained in severe weather spotting in conjunction with the National Weather Service.

“If there’s severe weather in our area, and the National Weather Service wants more info, they can contact any spotter in our area to describe the conditions,” said Reid. “That’s how we work.”

Scott County also has SAFECOM teams that go out and track storms on the ground.

Those teams were certainly busy in 10 years ago when the May 15 and 30 storms rolled through Scott County and Savage. Several Minnesota counties were declared disaster areas, which meant they were available for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). Between the two storms, there was $890,000 worth of damage to the city, and additional $800,000 damage to private property.

McColl said the fire department set up an emergency operations room in the fire station just to deal with the onslaught off calls from residents.

The hardest hit areas in Savage were Highland Pond neighborhood off Dakota Avenue and McColl Drive, the Nicole Glen, Wellington Forest and Pondview neighborhoods by Yosemite Avenue over to 135th Street, Hidden Valley Park, the Dufferin Park neighborhood, the County Road 42/Huntington Drive business district and O’Connell Park.

The Scott County Sheriff’s Department said seven homes in Savage were totally destroyed, 88 sustained major damage and 353 sustained minor damage. One hundred trees at Hidden Valley Park alone were lost, while the roof of the warming house at O’Connell Park was torn off and thrown 150 feet.

City Forester John Allen estimated 60 percent of the city’s mature trees were lost in the areas hit hardest by the storm.

“It was definitely one of the worst storms that I saw since I joined fire department,” said McColl. “Trees were down everywhere. We had to block off roads. A lot of folks were impacted.”

 Tom Schardin can be reached at tschardin@swpub.com.