WHEN SEVERE WEATHER COMES - WHERE WILL YOU BE? AND, WHERE WILL YOUR FAMILY BE? HOPEFULLY, SAFE!

A short time ago, more than forty tornadoes ravaged the Midwest states and the Mississippi Valley. In Southern Indiana more than twenty people were killed when the tornado struck - while they slept. The tornado struck about 2:30AM, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning with a 20 minute lead time, the Civil Defense sirens were sounded - while they slept.

Closer to home, on April 6, 2005, the Monterrey Community, just south of Brandon, was destroyed by an F3 tornado. Many people survived the tornado because it happened during the daylight hours and many of them had Weather Alert Radios.

Hurricanes threatened us in August and September and many were without the conveniences of electricity, telephone and gasoline as a result.

So, what can we do to help protect ourselves? We can make ourselves more aware of what is going on with the weather by knowing what to look for. We can involve the whole family in a “severe weather plan” for our household so that each member knows what to do when severe weather threatens.

The National Weather Service has a Warning Preparedness Meteorologist on staff who will come to our clubhouse and present a Severe Weather Seminar. He will also be glad to answer any and all questions one might have about severe weather. Or, groups could be organized and scheduled to tour the National Weather Facility and have the seminar on-station.

Weather Alert Radios can, and do, save lives. They should be as common in each household as is the smoke detector. The Weather Alert Radio is a direct line to the National Weather Service and will “alarm” when they issue any type of severe weather warning. The radios will wake you from a sound sleep. Radios are tunable and can be programmed to receive warnings for the specific county you want to be alarmed for - and, they operate all across the nation.

If you are interested in learning about, or learning more about the Weather Alert System - I can help. I am more than glad to talk with anyone who would like to learn how the NOAA Weather Radio functions; how the Weather Alert Radio operates; where you can purchase Weather Alert Radios; the various types of radios available; and what you should reasonably expect to pay for a radio. If you are interested learning more about the radios, please contact me and I’ll be glad to meet with you.

NOTE:  You can explore National Weather Service homepage for forecasts, radar, climatology, storms for around the country at  www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/  and for their "Storm Data" -  www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/stormdata/data/

Bill Knight

540 Brighton Circle

601-992-2523 - Home

601-668-2754 - Cell