Tower repairs nearing completion

After nearly a year, the county’s emergency communications system is almost completely restored.
On May 21 and May 24, tornadoes caused damage across multiple areas across the county. Montgomery County Emergency Management coordinator Brian Hamman said the eventual rough weather was little surprise last year.
“We knew it was going to be one of those days where, you know, the threat was definitely there. Severe weather was definitely fresh in the minds of everyone as just a couple weeks prior on April 26, severe storms impacted our area, mainly the Pottawattamie County area, Minden especially, and Elkhorn,” explained Hamman.
“May 21, 2024 we knew was going to be a big day. They were very sure of it, more sure than probably what I’ve ever heard from the Weather Service and different media folks. The day started off early, we had severe storms first thing in the morning, with an eventual tornado down around Coburg. That storm thankfully only impacted one resident and resulted in minor damage.”
However, after that initial morning storm, Hamman said the weather was just right for more severe weather.
“It remained a gloomy day for the most part. It was real humid. The Weather Service said do not put your guard down because there’s more storms and they’re going to be worse than they were that morning. It was around 1 p.m. that they issued the tornado watch. A couple hours later, we’re out, storm spotters are out, storms are starting to fire. We have the eventual tornado that occurred just outside of Red Oak, and then the second tornado, the more significant tornado in the Villisca area. Everyone knows, you know, the dedication and things that the Sheriff’s Office did that day with Deputy Dolan risking his life at Hacklebarney to make sure everyone was safe, accounted for, and then in shelter. I’ve never seen so many cars, storm chasers, on Highway 71 and Highway 34,” commented

Hamman
It was about an hour after the afternoon tornadoes that Hamman first became aware of a tower being down from the storm.
“I was stopped on the side of the road north of Hacklebarney by an individual and asked if I had seen the tower that was destroyed over by Villisca. At the time I hadn’t even made it that way and communications were working fine. A couple minutes goes by and I was still talking with him, and I started to wonder which tower he meant. There’s several communication towers near Villisca, north, south, east, and west. I asked which tower was it? He thought it was to the west of Villisca. That caused some concern because obviously our tower site is west of Villisca. Still, at that particular time, I didn’t think too much of it. Our radios were working and we had coverage,” advised Hamman. “Had I got on to my email, I would have seen all the tower alarms and would have known right then something was wrong, but in that moment, with everything going on, it was obviously not a concern. We were more concerned about public safety, making sure everyone was safe and accounted for. We had at least one or two homes that were actually destroyed. We had roads that were blocked, debris on the highway.”
As they were were clearing different locations, Hamman had a first responder go check the tower sites just to go make sure, and that was when he confirmed that the tower was on the ground. Still, Hamman said it wasn’t as bad as it would have been with the communication system they replaced around five years ago.
“If it would have happened on any of our repeater sites on the old system, it would have been very detrimental. We wouldn’t be able to communicate at all. There would have been absolutely no coverage. But those repeater sites were on telephone poles, they’re not 300-foot towers up in the air. To repair the old system would have been much faster, maybe around a three to four week turnaround time, but even though we lost a whole tower with our new system, we had communications the whole time. There was obviously areas that didn’t have communication or very little, and our fire paging was greatly impacted on that side of the county. But, this whole year we have been live, and we have been able to talk. Other people have been able to talk.”
Hamman said he was at the tower site within about two hours after we were able to make sure that everyone was accounted for.
“Thankfully the local radio shop out of Omaha, had one of the technicians call and ask if everything was okay because they had gotten numerous tower alarms, microwave tower alarms, and generator alarms. At the time, he happened to be in Clarinda. So, I told him he needed to come to the Villisca tower site as it was on the ground and destroyed. Our first focus was killing the power, shutting the generator off, and turning off the site completely and we did. He was able to make some phone calls on my behalf right away and get the ball rolling,” stated Hamman.
The next day, Hamman said they ended up having a conference call with about 40 or 50 people from the state, from Motorola, and other different players that were a part of the initial project five years ago to get that ball rolling.
“The timeline at that time was roughly 12 to 18 months. First they had to see what was salvageable, and what was not. Obviously, it was clear the tower itself, is destroyed. The biggest unknown factor was the footings for the three legs of the tower.  We couldn’t inspect that until the tower was off of the mounds. Almost a month after the tornado, the tower was taken, taken down. We were able to get the footings analyzed, and unfortunately, because of the way the tower twisted and fell, and a combination of how it was removed, ultimately, the foundation was deemed destroyed as well. So, that meant that basically we’re starting from the ground up.
Thankfully the weather, for the most part, worked in the project’s favor.
“They got the footings done late winter, because we had another mild winter, only a couple snows. They were also able to get the steel ordered. They were able to push that forward for us. Our biggest issue in the last couple months was the wind. It probably would have been live maybe a month or two sooner without the wind, but we had so many windy days and forecasted windy days that a lot of those weeks the tower crews couldn’t climb, so they didn’t even bother coming. But, once the weather broke, they were able to get the antennas up, get the microwave dishes up, and then it was all the final connections into the shelter site, powering everything up. Now that we are live, we’ve got probably another month or so of just final audits, checklists, punch list items that have to be completed, and then we’ll be able to wipe our hands clean of it. Still, it could have been around 18 months so it went better than we were planning for time,” said Hamman.
One of the biggest factors that assisted them in the process, Hamman said, was strong insurance.
“I can’t say enough about our insurance carrier. They’ve always been great to deal with. Insurance has been a lifesaver on several different things after the tornado, but for the most part everything, everything was insured. Out of roughly $1.2 million dollars for a new tower site and all the components, assuming we can get reimbursed by FEMA to the max amount, our out-of-pocket on communications is only about $4,000 or $5,000 thousand dollars. That tells you right there how valuable those premiums are, how valuable those insurance policies are. And that’s just not for us, that’s for anyone out there that’s experienced severe weather or a flood, a tornado, a fire, whatever it may be,” Hamman commented.
Hamman added the coverage for the first responders radios has already seen an improvement.
“Almost immediately. The fire paging system for Villisca and Stanton improved very noticeably. For everyone that had had issues, I think those issues have cleared up. The pages are much more clear, they’re stronger, they can be heard at a further distance away. We’re always going to have areas that are dead zones. We’re always going to have spots and homes and buildings where you may be standing in one spot and no communication and you may go to the other side of the room or two feet away and it may pick it up. It’s just the way systems are designed. But, once they turned everything live, it was immediate,” Hamman stated.
Hamman also said he was pleased that after working through the project for most of last year, he’s near the point where its finished.
“After living and breathing it for almost three years prior to getting the initial approved to implementing it, it’s a big undertaking that’s very time-consuming. It’s, it’s just a lot of work. Thankfully, everything fell into place and worked out. Just a couple minor hiccups here and there, but we’re back live and we’re running,” Hamman said.