Weather Radios Can Be Lifesavers
Release Date: April 19, 2006
Release Number: 1604-329
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BILOXI, Miss. -- A weather radio could be a life-saver during the 2006 hurricane season that begins in less than seven weeks on June 1.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio can help Mississippi residents monitor dangerous storms. The weather radio transmits alerts of severe weather and dangerous conditions before they arrive.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) recommend weather radios for homes and businesses.
The National Weather Service broadcasts forecasts and severe weather warnings and watches 24 hours a day over the NOAA radio network. A watch means that potentially life-threatening weather is headed toward your area.
A warning means that potentially life-threatening weather is imminent or already occurring.
The radio network broadcasts watches and warnings covering natural incidents such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, thunderstorms and winter storms. The network also provides information on topics such as oil spills, 911 telephone outages, AMBER alerts and terrorist attacks. Broadcasts also are translated into Spanish.
Weather radios are available at electronics stores at prices ranging from $20 to $200. Here are some features you should look for when purchasing one:
- Alarm tone – This allows the radio to be set on silent but produce a special tone to alert you to severe weather.
- Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) – This feature provides area specific information by filtering out alerts that do not affect your immediate area.
- Hand crank or battery operated – A radio should be able to operate on batteries or hand-cranked to produce operating power.
- Tunable to all NWS frequencies – Visit www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr for frequencies.
- For the hearing and visually impaired – a feature that allows radios to connect the alarms to other attention-getting devices like personal computers and text printers.
More information is available online at www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.
FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
Last Modified: Wednesday, 19-Apr-2006 16:07:18