Front Row (standing): Carrollton Fire Chief John Murphy; Mayor Ronald F. Branson; Fort Worth MIC Bill Bunting; and, Emergency Management Specialist Joe Ellis. Back Row (seated):City Attorney Clay Hutchins, Councilman Jim Hayden and Councilman John Mahalik (Photo: WFO Fort Worth)
(July 21, 2008) -- National Weather Service officials have recognized Carrollton, Texas as a StormReady® community. Bill Bunting, meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service forecast office in Fort Worth, presented city officials with a recognition letter and special StormReady signs during a July 15 ceremony in the city council chamber.
The nationwide community preparedness program uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle local severe weather and flooding threats. It is voluntary and provides communities with clear-cut advice from the local National Weather Service forecast office and state and local emergency managers.
The program began in 1999 with seven communities in the Tulsa, Okla., area. Today, there are more than 1,300 StormReady communities.
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; and, develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.