About 13 minutes before 2 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2005, a tornado warning was issued for Evansville, Indiana. Many people were sleeping and never heard the warning. Two-year-old C.J. Martin, living in a community of manufactured homes that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of a tornado, was one of 20 fatalities.

C.J.’s mother, Kathryn Martin, made it her mission to do something for other families in the future.

In part due to her efforts, Indiana has just passed C.J.’s law, requiring “installation of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards public alert radios in all new and relocated manufactured housing, within manufactured communities in Indiana, effective July 1.”

Beverly Poole is the meteorologist-in-charge of the Paducah Weather Forecast Office, from where the warning was issued. “November 6, 2005, will forever be etched in the minds of Evansville and tri-state residents, but out of such devastation and loss of life that touched so many, one child’s life, C.J.’s, will live on in our hearts as C.J.’s Law lays the foundation to save countless lives in the future,” Poole said this week. �