NOAA Recognizes Custer County, Idaho, as StormReady®
December 10, 2007
Custer County, Idaho, and the communities of Challis, Mackay, and Stanley completed the NOAA National Weather Service StormReady® program, better equipping the county to handle severe weather. The Custer County emergency management team fulfilled a rigorous set of warning and evacuation criteria, including the development of a formal hazardous weather plan.
"Custer County is vulnerable to severe weather due to its vast topography of arid desert and rugged rocky mountains," said Rick Dittmann, meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service forecast office in Pocatello. “With the legendary Salmon River, Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area located within the county, the likelihood of the public encountering severe weather is greatly increased. Public awareness and preparedness are essential.”
Dittmann today presented a recognition letter and StormReady® road signs to county officials during a ceremony at the Custer County commissioners’ meeting.
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.
The StormReady® recognition expire 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.