The program encourages counties to take a new, proactive approach to improving local warning capabilities by providing emergency managers with clear-cut guidelines on how to help make their citizens aware of the threat of hazardous weather conditions. The better the citizen is prepared for all types of severe weather, the lower the potential impact on the community and the more effective the emergency response resources are in meeting local needs in a disaster response. Its the old ounce of prevention is worth as pound of cure theory.
Criteria
To be officially StormReady, a county must:
- Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center
- Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public
- Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally
- Promote the importance of public readiness
- Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.