NOAA Recognizes Arlington County, Va., as StormReady®
April 28, 2008
High Resolution (Credit: NOAA)
Arlington County, Va., has become the fifth Washington, D.C., metropolitan county to become StormReady®, making more than 63 percent of metro Washington D.C. StormReady®.
Arlington will officially join the ranks of Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, and Montgomery counties at its StormReady® ceremony on Tuesday, Apr. 29, at 11 a.m., in the county’s office of emergency management, 1400 North Uhle Street, Arlington.
"Arlington County is home to the Pentagon, National Airport, and the major urban centers of Crystal City, Ballston, and Rosslyn. Being StormReady® makes the county better equipped to respond to weather emergencies in its heavily populated areas,” said Christopher Strong, warning coordination meteorologist at the Sterling Weather Forecast Office.
To be recognized as StormReady®, a community must:
- Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center;
- Have more than one way to receive severe weather forecasts and warnings and to alert the public;
- Create a system that monitors local weather conditions;
- Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars;
- Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.
“In an era of threats, every community should be StormReady®,” said Robert P. Griffin Jr., director of the county’s office of emergency management. “The StormReady® program improves the community’s ability to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from a weather related incident and is an important component of Arlington County’s integrated all hazards approach to emergency management.”
The StormReady® program is part of NOAA’s National Weather Service working partnership with the International Association of Emergency Managers and the National Emergency Management Association. The StormReady® recognition expires in three years, after which the county will go through a renewal process.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.