Police Officer / Storm Spotter Dies from Injuries

[Jayson Prentice]

It's sad news to hear of anybody dieing in a storm, even worse when it was a person that was aiding/helping others. To me it doesn't matter how it happened or why, it is saddening either way to hear of his family and friends that have to go through the loss...

 

[Clint Perkins]

On Saturday morning I received word that “1” officer was killed while patrolling/spotting in Kansas on Friday evening. Yesterday I was informed of the tragedy and its ending concerning Officer Tim Buckman.

My question is, was this the same reported officer or were a total of "2" officers killed in Kansas spotting/patrolling last Friday evening?

My family’s hearts and prayers go out to those affected by this weekend’s event!

Clint

 

[Shane Adams]

I would like to clarify a couple things. Tim was a Macksville police officer and a fire/ems volunteer for me. He was NOT in Greesnburg as the media has portrayed. I called him when DDC relayed the storm was tracking toward Macksville. They had no power and no storm sirens. He had tried to warn people in town and I passed him on the highway at Dillwyn. He was headed east and asked me where I was going on the radio. He told me he was going east to look back toward town and stay east of the storm. The last info I had was "its two miles south of Macksville, headed straight north". This would have put Tim well out of harms way. I'm not real sure on the track yet, but it seems Tim had zero visibility and the storm jogged to the east hitting him head on. We already had calls of people trapped in a house south of Macksville, but ordered personnel not to respond and to seek shelter until the storm passed. Apparently, Tim felt he was safe where he was. We'll never know for sure.

That post gave me chills. We stopped in Byers after witnessing a large wedge south of Macksville at 11:04pm, and ran into a police officer. We pulled alongside, and exchanged information about what we'd seen/heard regarding the tornadoes in the area. This would've have been somewhere between 11:10-11:20pm. We then asked him if we could continue our chase (he was out patroling to warn people in Byers). He said "it's at your own risk, but go on". We thanked him and drove on north out of Byers. We stopped about a mile north of town, along with chaser Chris Wilbern, to view the storm. As we sat there, the officer we'd spoken to drove by us, and about a mile ahead, turned west, towards the area south of Macksville.........directly towards the area we'd last seen the tornado. He had his lights on, and was obviously trying to warn anyone who lived in the area. This would've been sometime around 11:30pm. We never saw him after that.

A while later, we observed a second tornado, from the same position, due north of us. From our position, the location of this tornado looked to be ESE of Macksville/southwest of St John...the time was 11:40-11:42pm.

The officer we spoke to was balding, had a moustache, and drove a white Caprice. I just now realized the car we saw thrown and smashed on the south side of US50 southwest of St John (the next day) was a white car....I certainly hope this was not the man who was killed.

 

[Jay Cazel]

Shane, I saw this at kake.com website......http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/7389831.html

Is this the guy?

 

[Jason Bolt]

FWIW, Tim was in a crown vic that said Macksville Police on the side and was in town with other people until 10:45.

 

[Shane Adams]

I'm 99.9% sure that's him...don't know much else to say.

The only ray of hope is that he was in Byers when we saw him....we never noticed what city name was on the car, so maybe the guy we saw was a Byers policeman who just looks similar.....but I think it's him. I can't be 100% certain on the car he was driving (I seem to remember a Caprice), but I do know it was white. Hopefully there's a Byers officer who looks similar and that's who we talked to.

 

[Chris Sokol]

I got this in my e-mail...gives a little more info:

Please forward to all of our spotters and remind them to be sure to stay
advised of the weather and to take appropriate positions during severe
weather!!!!


I thought you might be interested in this call:



We have been advised that Tim Buckman, a Stafford County (Kansas)
Fire/EMS member and a Macksville police officer died in the line of duty
this morning. He was injured last Friday when his vehicle was struck
and LIFTED by the tornado while he was serving as a storm spotter. The
force of the storm lifted Buckman's vehicle and flung it 70 yards from
the highway, according to Jason Bolt, Stafford County Emergency Service
director.

While he was not on duty as a FF from what we have been advised, we felt
this tragic and unusual LODD was of interest and value to members of The
Secret List...as it clearly demonstrates the effects of tornadoes.
Arrangements are pending. The family has established the Tim Buckman
Memorial Fund at St. John National Bank, 620-549-3225, to benefit
Stafford County Fire, EMS, and law enforcement. As always our deepest
sympathies go out to all effected, especially Tim Buckmans family.

Take Care-BE CAREFUL.

BillyG

The Secret List 5-8-07 / 1720 hours

www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com

 

[David Schuttler]

But chasers aren't on communication nets during severe weather, they act alone.

The entire point of spotter nets is to keep everyone linked and updated on the situation, particularly WHERE THE TORNADO IS. I'm not criticizing the police officer at all, I'm questioning why he had no idea he was in trouble; was he not linked via radio to other spotters? And why was an out-of-town officer there in the first place? He had to have known SOMETHING was coming to even be there in the first place, as Macksville is something like 15-18 miles northeast of Greensburg.

Don't for one instant think my post was meant to "call out" the officer, I'm simply asking questions that need to be asked. When a chaser dies in a tornado, we'll all know WHY it happened, WHY he was there. But when a spotter/public servant dies, with their sole-objective being to warn (and you gotta know where the danger is to effectively warn), you have to ask: how did he/she not realize they were in trouble? You had numerous spotter/chaser reports of this tornado sevenral minutes before it got to Greensburg. Anyone monitoring any type of radio, you'd think they would know where it was.

Now - as I mentioned before (and no one commented on THAT portion of my post), perhaps he was simply risking his life to drive the streets and warn people, and just cut it too close. I guess we'll never know.

I have a video clip HERE of when I was talking with one of the sheriffs on hwy. 183 at about 9:53. The last comment is "Nobody knows where this tornado is right now" which I guess you might assume something was missing that night to make sure officials had the information they needed or maybe it was just because of the magnitude not everything was being heard as it was said.

 

[Kathryn Piotrowski]

I think that every law enforcement and emergency management official should have mobile threatnet with GPS in their vehicle when in those conditions, especially during the night. I have no doubt that visibility was poor, if non-existent, getting disoriented is so easy to do in that type of environment. As someone mentioned earlier, an officer feels and it is his public duty to try to save lives...I am just saying that in this day and age...to not have the technology available to a person who will be in that type of environment...well, I just think it is something that county and state officials need to look at to keep persons safe.

Last year chasing in Iowa at night...there was alot of confusion...on I-80 as the tornados were approaching. I believe if the Highway Patrol and County Sherriffs would have had ThreatNet and known how to read what they were seeing...they could have accurately stopped traffic, well in advance of the approaching tornado...and avoided injury to persons on I-80. Also, this would probably keep the officials from stopping traffic unnecessarily and creating problems as well.

I remember what it was like storm chasing before mobile threatnet...radio reports can get confusing...but thank GOD for those radio reports...I'm just saying that without GPS trying to accurately track a report on a storm, at night, is pretty darn tough even for the most experienced storm spotter.

My prayers go out to the family of Office Buckman, he was a hero in my book.

 

[rdale]

That's not even close to financially possible... My question is why didn't he know there was a tornado emergency in effect?

 

[Shane Adams]

I'm fairly certain he was caught by the new tornado developing east of the previous one. I know he was aware of the tornado south of Macksville because of Jason Holt's posts as well as the fact Mickey and I told him (when he first pulled up to us) that we'd seen a large tornado in that area south of Macksville.....the last we saw him, he was heading west to the rural areas south of Macksville, knowing the tornado was still well west of him. Jason said the last time he spoke with him, he had made it to the highway and was traveling east to get ahead of the storm/town to look back west. The new tornado formed south of the highway/east of Macksville, and most-likely overtook him as it developed and approached the highway......visibility was very low, and I'm guessing he was concerned with the ongoing tornado west of him that was threatening his town....just a bad situation all around.

As far as him being aware/not aware of the "Tornado Emergency", we'll never know. But I'm guessing he was less concerned with the details of the Greensburg warning and more concerned with the tornadoes AFTER Greensburg, which were affecting his own community.