Lewis County will officially receive StormReady status Monday when officials from the National Weather Service travel here to present a certificate and road signs to Judge Executive Todd Ruckel.
The ceremony is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Monday at the Lewis County Courthouse.
Ken Haydu, Meteorologist-In-Charge at the National Weather Service Office in Wilmington, Ohio, and Brandon Peloquin, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, will make the presentation.
The StormReady program was designed to help arm communities with the communication and safety skills needed to protect lives and property.
The StormReady program encourages communities to take a proactive approach in improving local hazardous weather operations.
The main benefit is improving the timeliness and effectiveness of hazardous weather warnings for the public.
StormReady provides detailed and clear recommendations which help local emergency managers establish and improve effective hazardous weather operations.
Emergency Management Director George Sparks said some of the steps taken to earn the designation included:
• Incorporating Lewis County’s severe weather threats into the hazard mitigation and emergency response plans.
• Establishing multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts to alert the public.
• Creating a system that monitors weather conditions locally
• Promoting the importance of public readiness through community seminars, severe weather spotter training and by conducting emergency exercises.
The county recently hosted a weather spotter training session by Peloquin.
Regular testing of outdoor warning sirens has also been implemented to ensure the sirens are working and personnel are familiar with activating them.
Other early warning measures have been taken to ensure timely notification of severe weather to schools and other facilities in the county.
StormReady is a cooperative effort between the county and the National Weather Service.
The ceremony is open to the public and everyone is invited.
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