All-Hazards Radio Can Save Your Life

June 23, 2006 — -- "We thought we were safe. We thought it was going to be the wind and the thunder and the lightning and that's it."

Kathryn Martin recalled the night in November when her life changed. A tornado roared through the Eastbrook Trailer Park on the outskirts of Evansville, Ind., killing her 2-year-old son, C.J.

"I don't think we ever anticipated having a tornado," she said. "I think we really just never thought about it."

Today, however, Martin lives in a permanent brick home, having left her damaged trailer. And she has acquired one more thing: an all-hazards radio. The device costs about $30 to $40 and can save your life. It's a radio that turns itself on automatically and broadcasts sirens and audible warnings on the approach of a potentially deadly storm.

"Had we known," Martin said, "we would have had one."

Sherman Greer, director of emergency management for Evansville and the surrounding Vanderburgh County, witnessed the devastation at the trailer park. A siren did sound about a mile away, but the tornado struck at 1:59 a.m.

"We're pushing these radios as much as possible," Greer said, adding, "You're not going to hear that siren unless you're living right under it."

He said he believes anyone who has a smoke detector should have an all-hazards radio, and he'd like to see them as a standard part of the home -- especially in Tornado Alley.

Midland Radio Corp. is one of a handful of companies that manufacture all-hazards radios.

"They're not expensive," said Bruce Thomas, Midland's representative in the Evansville area. "If $30 might save your whole family's life here in Tornado Alley, why wouldn't you do that?"

At Beuhler's Buy-Low, a combination grocery and hardware store in Evansville, the radios have been a hot-selling item.

"We feel like we're giving back to the community and putting that peace of mind in their home," said Beuhler's Eric Bedwell.

WEHT News 25 has aired a campaign to raise awareness in the area, and it has clearly paid off. More than 45,000 of the all-hazards radios have been sold since the tornado. That's impressive, given that there are only about 120,000 people in the city of Evansville.