Godfrey Achieves National Weather Service Recertification As A "Storm-Ready" Community

GODFREY - Mayor Mike McCormick is pleased to announce that Godfrey has successfully completed the NWS vetting for recertification as a “Storm Ready” community.

The NWS “StormReady” program essentially helps arm America's communities with the knowledge, communication and safety skills needed to save lives and protect property - StormReady helps coordinate with local government officials and emergency managers (ESDA) to strengthen municipal safety and response plans. These NWS accredited communities are far better prepared for the onslaught of severe weather because they; consider local threat assessment issues, provide advanced planning and mitigation of potential hazards, continue ongoing public education programs and provide situational awareness to the community before, during and after a severe weather event.”

Mayor McCormick states the benefits of being a “Storm Ready” community: “This program encourages village officials, residents and businesses to take a new, proactive approach to improving our local hazardous weather operations by providing everyone with clear-cut guidelines on how to better coordinate, communicate, and potentially improve what we can do during severe events. I was extremely pleased to hear from the NWS coordinator following the inspection that Godfrey is one of the best prepared communities that participate in the national program and it doesn’t get much better in regard to our hazardous weather planning and response operations.”

To officially be vetted and included as part of the NWS StormReady program, a community must:

• Establish and maintain a 24-hour warning point and local emergency operations center.
• Have multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts to alert the public.
• Create a system that allows municipal emergency managers (ESDA) to monitor weather conditions locally, properly analyze the data and disseminate the critical information to the public in real time.
• Promote the importance of public readiness through continuous community seminars, public education campaigns, CodeRed sign-up drives and provide social media weather safety tips and updates on possible future severe weather potential to the local community (sometimes up to two days in advance).
• Develop and maintain a formal hazardous weather plan and certified Emergency Operations Plan which includes training severe weather spotters and holding local emergency exercises.
• Local government must regularly participate in community facility inspections by the NWS Severe Weather Coordinator (from the St. Louis office) to verify that all of the above criterion has been met.

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