NOAA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DECLARES BENTON COUNTY, ARK., Feb. 27, 2006 � The NOAA National Weather Service has declared Benton County, Ark., the nation's 1,000th StormReady® community. Benton County, Ark., is served by the NOAA National Weather Service office in Tulsa, Okla., where the popular life-saving program originated. A formal recognition ceremony is scheduled for April. (Click NOAA illustration using StormReady poster for larger view. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”) "StormReady has been a tremendous success in terms of raising community awareness of potential weather hazards and elevating the overall preparedness on a local level when severe weather occurs," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher, undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "Our objective is to have the entire nation StormReady. This is a community-by-community effort, and Benton County has worked hard to earn this title. We look forward to working with communities around the nation in helping them attain the title of a StormReady community." The nationwide
community preparedness program uses a grassroots approach to help communities
develop plans to handle local severe weather and flooding threats. The
program is voluntary and provides communities with clear-cut advice
from a partnership between the local NOAA National Weather Service weather
forecast office and state and local emergency managers. Benton County officials will be presented with a formal recognition letter and StormReady signs during a ceremony at 11 a.m. April 7 at the Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. The StormReady recognition will be in effect for three years when the county will go through a renewal process. "The United States is the most severe-weather prone region of the world, and the mission of the National Weather Service is to reduce the loss of life and property from these storms. StormReady helps us create communities that are better prepared across the country," said Steven Piltz, meteorologist-in-charge of the Tulsa forecast office. Piltz and meteorologist Lans Rothfusz, formally with the Tulsa forecast office and now meteorologist-in-charge in Atlanta, developed the StormReady program. To be recognized as StormReady, a community must:
StormReady® is a registered trademark used by the NOAA National Weather Service. NOAA, an
agency of the U.S. Department of
Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national
safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related
events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal
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