CAPE CORAL - Sunday's damaging tornado in Cape Coral came suddenly. Now, some people are complaining to the National Weather Service that their weather radios never warned them of the approaching storm.

The National Weather Service says, in most cases, radios that didn't sound an alarm were not tuned to the proper frequency. NWS says it did send out an alert, and one Cape Coral couple may be proof. They say they not only heard it, but it may have saved their lives.

"We had about a 10 minute warning that the storm was coming," Denise O'Brien said. She and her husband just bought the weather radio earlier this year, after seeing pictures of tornado devastation earlier this year in Lake County, Florida.

"We had heard the story of the people in central Florida, that the tornado had hit in the middle of the night," O'Brien said. "The people that had less injury, that were saved, were the people that had the warning of the weather radio."

The radios can be tuned for localized alerts, with battery back-up to sound an alarm even when the power goes out.

"It's loud enough, you can hear it throughout the whole house," O'Brien said. She believes their weather radio might have prevented an even bigger disaster.

"In fact, my daughter's going to get one for Christmas," O'Brien said. "It's the best 30 dollars I ever spent."

The National Weather Service says most weather radio problems are a result of four things:

1. Radio listening to wrong frequency
2. Radio programmed to wrong SAME code
3. Weak signal (due to distance, inside metal structure, near a window with metallic window tint)
4. Radio turned off (hit the snooze bar so the sound is off but the radio is still listening to the signal)

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After the weekends severe weather, it’s a good time to remind everyone the value of having a NOAA Weather Alert Radio. Pick one up at your local Southwest Florida Publix.

If you stop by one of these three locations this Saturday morning September 22, 2007 between 8:30a.m. and 11:30a.m., WINK News will be there to say hello. You might even win a severe weather kit.
-CAPE CORAL: MIDPOINT CENTER
-NAPLES: BERKSHIRE COMMONS
-PORT CHARLOTTE: PEACHLAND PROMENADE

Trust WINK News and Skytracker Weather to keep you ahead of the storm. A portion of the radio's cost helps WINK News feed families through the Harry Chapin Food Bank.