Lake County urges residents to prepare for severe weather drills this week

Lake County Emergency Management is midway through a multi-phase update of its emergency alert system and is urging residents to rehearse sheltering and evacuation plans before Minnesota’s statewide tornado drills at 1:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 16. The county posted the notice on April 10 announcing participation in Severe Weather Awareness Week, April 13–17, 2026, and stressing that outdoor sirens will sound during the drills while indoor warnings require additional alert methods.

The county’s public notice lays out daily preparedness themes for April 13–17: Alerts and Warnings on Monday, Severe Weather Lightning and Hail on Tuesday, Floods on Wednesday, Tornadoes and the statewide drills on Thursday, and Extreme Heat on Friday. Lake County also promoted a local preparedness expo, Survive This! Lake County Emergency Resilience, at Two Harbors High School on April 26 from 1–3 p.m., where organizers say NOAA Weather Radio giveaways will be available.

State coordination for the awareness week comes from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, working with the National Weather Service offices that cover the region. Both HSEM and NWS advise that outdoor warning sirens are designed primarily for outdoor notification and are not a reliable indoor alarm, and they recommend having at least three alert methods including NOAA Weather Radio, Wireless Emergency Alerts to smartphones, and local opt-in services.

Lake County’s technical work is specific: the emergency alert update includes reconfiguring notification settings, verifying participant lists, and conducting annual testing. The county lists Warren LaPlante as Emergency Management Director on its staff roster, and local public-safety partners deploy Nixle and Everbridge for opt-in alerts alongside Zonehaven Genasys Protect mapping for geographically targeted evacuation planning.

Local geography and recent history underscore the urgency. Lake County covers roughly 2,991 square miles total, about 2,109 square miles of land, and had 10,905 residents at the 2020 census, with long stretches of North Shore shoreline and large forested tracts. The county was included in the federal major disaster declaration FEMA-4797-DR-MN for severe storms and flooding that began June 16, 2024, illustrating recent, significant impacts that strained local response and recovery.

Minnesota’s climatology informs the timing of the drill: the state averaged about 46 tornadoes per year from 1991 to 2020, with most tornadoes occurring May through August and notable variability in recent years. The drills give schools, second-shift workers, families, and businesses a chance to test notification paths and sheltering plans during daytime and evening conditions.

The county’s notice urged concrete steps: register for county emergency alerts, confirm NOAA Weather Radio reception, keep a smartphone able to receive Wireless Emergency Alerts, update household emergency plans with meeting points and evacuation routes, assemble or refresh a 72-hour supply kit, and use the April 26 Survive This event at Two Harbors High School for hands-on guidance. The April 16 drills will provide an immediate test of the alert changes and local coordination with HSEM and the National Weather Service, giving officials a clearer read on where outdoor sirens, opt-in systems, and household plans succeeded or need adjustment.