Eagan Water Park preps for summer's storms with lightning detection system
EAGAN, Minn. -- Air remains cold and pools are still empty.
"I'm ready for it to get back to 80 degrees and get this place open," said Mark Vaughan, the facility manager at Eagan's city-run Cascade Bay Water Park.
Now is the time to prepare. Prior to last season, the water park installed a lightning detection system onto their roof.
"It was a great resource for our staff because we no longer had to make that hard decision because the computer and the system was doing it for us," said Vaughan.
The system is like what many golf courses use. Eagan's is set at a three-mile radius. When lightning is near, workers get alerted on their phones and at the main computer, which is kept in the park's office, up high and out of reach.
"We don't want anybody touching the keyboard, so this is how we get it and it's our consistent reading," said Vaughan.
The odds of being struck by lightning is one in 12,000. Cascade Bay used it multiple times last summer.
"It gave information right to our lifeguards that we can then empty the pool and get everyone out of the water. And then it keeps mapping it until it's all clear," said Vaughan.
The system was paid for by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Homeland Security and Emergency Management division and their hazard mitigation funds.
"This is just a piece of what we do," said Brian Olson, the HSEM Preparedness and Recovery Bureau Director.
They hope what Eagan has done creates a cascading effect.
"We can do this throughout the state. It's just a matter of a local jurisdiction wanting to do something like this, contacting their county emergency management team and then they'll get ahold of us," said Olson.
That way park-goers can worry about sunlight and not lightning.
