OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The National Weather Service in Omaha are advising radio users to find alternative ways of receiving alerts due to damaged radio antennas.
"A lot of people depend on weather radios for their warning source," Omaha National Weather Service lead meteorologist Van DeWald said. "When the radio is down, you have to have an alternative."
Transmitters in Shubert, Nebraska and Hancock, Iowa are to blame. The damaged Shubert antenna will affect users in the counties of Pawnee, Richardson, Johnson, Otoe and Nemaha in Nebraska. Kansas counties affected include Nemaha and Brown. Missouri counties affected include Atchison and Holt. Both NWS antennas were damaged last winter by ice. It's unable to produce a strong signal and technicians hope to have it fixed by early June.
The damaged transmitter in Hancock, Iowa affects Harrison, Shelby, Audubon, Pottawattamie, Cass, Mills, Montgomery, Page and Adams counties. This tower is completely off the air and no timeline for repair is known at this time, according to the National Weather Service in Omaha. The tower must pass an integrity test before repairs can be made.
A crew contracted by the National Weather Service will fix the transmitters. No timetable is set for the Hancock antenna at this time because a repair crew contracted by NWS travels the country fixing other towers.
Some alternatives you can take up include using your cell phone.. Apple and Android users can download our 3 News Now and Storm Shield apps for alerts. 3 News Now meteorologist Mark Stitz says mobile alerts are critical for waking you up for potential overnight storms. He also says multiple sources are necessary to track storms.
"One of those methods could go down," he said. "If you rely on cell phones for warnings, those cell phone towers that send data to your phone could get overloaded with other data or struck by lightning or the storm could bring it down."
More information about the outages and alternatives can be found here at the National Weather Service Website.
