(Radio Iowa) – Republican Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson recently joined with Democrat Congresswoman Cindy Axne in sending a letter to the National Weather Service after reports of technical delays in warnings of severe storms. Those delays came earlier this month on the day that seven people died in tornadoes.  “I want to make sure that everybody has the tools to effectively warn their communities,” Hinson says. “…our emergency managers, our meteorologists, that’s who we are talking to right now to find out where the breakdowns happened in the communication on their end” Hinson says.

The delays in tornado warnings on March 5th were due primarily to a damaged fiber optic cable. National Weather Service staff came up with a workaround and a warning that a tornado was likely to hit near Winterset was issued 20 minutes in advance. Hinson says they hope to hear back more from the N-W-S on how things can be improved. “So we can find out what the actual legislative proposals need to be, to find out what I need to do in terms of resources or policies — so we make sure that we get these problems fixed so we can keep people safe,” she says.

Hinson says her conversations with local and state officials indicate the damage will not rise to the level needed to be approved for a federal disaster declaration. “As of now no — but we will continue to monitor any feedback from our local folks as well,” Hinson says. Governor Kim Reynolds has issued state disaster proclamations for the ten counties hit by the tornadoes on March 5th. Those counties are Adair, Benton, Decatur, Jasper, Lucas, Madison, Polk, Tama, Warren, and Wayne counties.