(ANGOLA) - Angola Mayor Dave Martin is seeking answers from the National Weather Service after last week's EF-1 tornado struck the city without a tornado warning.
Speaking Monday during the Angola Common Council meeting, Martin said the city activated its tornado sirens only after a local storm spotter reported seeing the tornado.
"We did not have a tornado warning," Martin told council members. "Sirens, when they triggered, we triggered them locally after a local spotter saw the tornado."
The National Weather Service has since confirmed the tornado traveled from LaGrange County into Steuben County as part of a storm system that produced multiple tornadoes across northeast Indiana.
Martin said Angola was near the end of the storm's path but still did not receive what he considers a timely warning.
"We were about the last place that got hit by that particular line of storms, but yet they did not get a tornado warning to us in a timely manner," Martin said.
Martin said he has contacted U.S. Congressman Marlin Stutzman's office and is seeking answers from the National Weather Service about why no tornado warning was issued before the storm reached Angola.
Martin also praised dispatchers, firefighters and street department crews for their response during the storm and the cleanup effort that followed.