On the night of Monday, June 21st, intense weather hit in south central Wisconsin that caused tornadic conditions as well as two tornadoes in a span of about three hours. Lightning flashed every two seconds, winds were so intense that they tore trees from the ground, and rain poured buckets from the sky. The power went out in a lot of areas, but luckily, my phone was charged and I had an app for that.
When the cable went out and the AM station we were trying to listen to in the basement wasn't coming in, the only working electronic that my house had was my iPhone. I flipped between my WeatherBug app as well as my TMJ4 app (I don't have FOX 6's app, but I imagine that they are similar).
WeatherBug informed me how deep in the storm we were as well as how long we had to wait until the tornado conditions were far out enough in the lake. TMJ4 kept me updated on how the conditions were throughout the area and how badly damaged villages and cities were due to the weather as well as confirmed tornadoes.
It pleases me that a couple news stations in Milwaukee took into consideration the applications because power outages do happen and they're looking into alternatives, such as the cell phone, to keep people updated when it does happen.
What's more, the village of Eagle was the one that was most effected by the tornado and it was discovered that the sirens didn't go off. If their power was out in addition to no sirens, they would be left in the dark literally (as the meteorologists liked to constantly say, tornadoes are almost impossible to see at nighttime). No one was killed and not many were injured, thankfully, but cell phones would be the only resort left in the situation until the phone lines were destroyed.
If an iPhone app was all a family had to rely on, it's something more than their neighbor may have to know what's going on.
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