Walgreen's will display warnings on their billboards

[rdale]

That's great for Walgreen's but i wonder how many people are going to blame an accident cause they were reading the sign and slammed in back of someone when their is a tornado warning/severe weather warning happening?

Again - it is one line of warning text. Less info than when the put out "Kleenex On Sale, 3 for $1.99" So I don't think that "TORNADO WARNING" is any more difficult to tread.

But if they don't take cover during a tornado when the sirens are sounding then its their own damn fault for not taking cover!

In you car with the windows rolled up, the AC blowing, and the radio on - and you won't hear the sirens. Many places don't even HAVE sirens.

 

[Matthew Fischer]

In you car with the windows rolled up, the AC blowing, and the radio on - and you won't hear the sirens. Many places don't even HAVE sirens.

And yet many places that don't have sirens don't have Walgreen's either!

 

[Danny Neal]

I can live with knowing the effort is being made to get warnings or information to the general public by any means possible. If it saves just one life, I am sure it will be considered a success.

 

[rdale]

And yet many places that don't have sirens don't have Walgreen's either!

I'm not sure I follow where you're going with this...

 

[John Wetter]

I still don't understand the obsession with sirens. I'd think especially on a forum like this where people are probably hyper-sensitive to weather happenings, you would know what's going on well before the sirens.

I guess my take is whatever other ways warnings can be disseminated the better, but it still all comes back to the fact that the individual person must take some responsibility for their own safety.

-John

 

[rdale]

Obsessions are bad I certainly do advocate their use in certain parts of the cities. But as the siren sales reps say - how many people do you know who have weather radios AND keep them plugged in?

 

[Bart_Comstock]

This is an outstanding idea and frankly im a bit surprised this hasnt been thought of sooner.

It would make a very neat foreground in a video to have a sign flashing the tornado warning text with a tornado in the back drop. Quite the money shot indeed... and no I don't mean a tornado in a populated area is good, I simply meant if it just happened it would make for interesting footage. Kinda like filming the flashing hurricane warning signs in houston while the storm was over us.

 

[rdale]

Take one and sell it to Walgreen's for their PR department...

 

[PaulChambers]

I have noticed the warnings on the Walgreens signs in the St. Louis, MO area and I think it is a great idea and hopefully more businesses will pick up on the idea!!

 

[Dan Rupnow]

Nope.

Here's what it said a few days ago, at stores 10+ miles from the nearest river, when one of our rivers was in flood:

* FLOOD WARNING *
9/14 7AM
UNTIL
9/21 7AM

I guess even though it is pretty vague information, it is still a good thing, as long as it is broadcast only at stores in the immediate area. Otherwise I could see people getting warnings too often, and when nothing ever happens in their area they would tend to dismiss the warnings and not be prepared when sooner or later something does happen in their area.

 

[rdale]

Roads were dry, skies were clear, only flooding was in a few basements near the river about 10 miles away...

 

[Lanny Dean]

Pretty cool idea if they can keep things current and not keep old bulletins up mixed in with their NyQuil sale. Tornado warning...better go buy those Depends which are on sale now for a low low Walgreens price of $9.99. If you are in the path of this large and dangerous tornado, you may need 'em....

Now that has got to be the funniest post I think I have ever read on ST.
On a serious note, I think this is a great thing they are doing...could help a lot of people in getting the word out, I just hope they keep it current and refreshed as stated in the press release

 

[david diehl]

also remember I Talk with a lot of people who say that they don't even pay attention to the signs. I definately agree that this is a great idea, and i think that more signs should show this information, but getting people to reconize it is not going to be easy because they don't pay attention to the signs, I know that I don't even notice them.

 

[Tim Newman]

This is an outstanding idea and frankly im a bit surprised this hasnt been thought of sooner.

Actually, something like this was done in North Alabama at least ten years ago. One of the Huntsville, AL TV stations worked with several billboard companies in the Tennessee Valley to place a small box on the side of some of their more prominent billboards. On the front and back of the box was a tornado symbol and on the side was a yellow light and a red light. During tornado watches, the tornado symbol would be backlit and the yellow light would be on. During warnings, the red light would be on. Of course, there was also a large marketing campaign to educate the public about all of this. Makes the station look good and also provides some visual warning for those who could not/did not hear sirens or were not listening to local programming. Sirens go off for 3-5 minutes. The lights stay on for the duration of the watch/warning.

I thought it was such a good idea that I am trying to get something similar going in my new area.