Contact: Chris Smith FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Paul Hebert 12/20/96
Thanks to an effort by Florida Power and Light (FP&L), the National Weather Service (NWS), and leaders of Dade County's public and private schools, 450,000 flyers describing a potentially life-saving broadcast system called NOAA Weather Radio are being distributed throughout Dade County.
Printed in English and Spanish, the flyers explain how everyone can get information about severe weather and other emergencies directly from the NWS. The NWS wrote the flyer, FP&L had them mass produced, and administrators of the Dade County public and private schools are coordinating their distribution. The Dade County Public Schools plan to print and distribute 30,000 copies of a Creole language version of the flyer soon.
After Hurricane Andrew, several agencies began an effort to ensure that every school, hospital, and nursing facility in Dade county had a NOAA Weather Radio. That initiative culminated last April when the Insurance Institute for Property Loss Reduction purchased and distributed the needed NOAA Weather Radio receivers.
"It's thrilling to know that hundreds of thousands of people are benefitting from the warnings, forecasts and other critical information that we disseminate on NOAA Weather Radio," said Paul Hebert, the meteorologist-in-charge of the weather service's Miami office. "The support and cooperation that we've received from the Insurance Institute, the schools, hospitals and nursing homes to get these receivers placed has been tremendous. Now, through this massive education effort, we're taking the program to the next logical step by urging everyone to use NOAA Weather Radio in their homes."
NOAA Weather Radio is a round-the-clock source of local weather reports to help you prepare for the day ahead. Routine programming is repeated every few minutes with regular updates of local forecasts, regional forecasts, marine forecasts, river stages and climate data. During emergencies, routine NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts are interrupted for warnings, watches and other critical information. When you are not watching TV or listening to the radio, specially-equipped NOAA Weather Radio receivers can automatically sound an alarm and turn itself on if a severe weather warning is broadcast. Information like this can buy you extra time to react before a dangerous storm or other hazard occurs.
NOAA Weather Radio receivers are available at most electronics stores and electronics departments of many retail chains for as little as $30. New models allow access to all seven frequencies the NWS uses nationwide to carry its transmissions. In Dade County, NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts are carried on 162.55 MHZ.
"For several years Paul Hebert and his staff have conducted seminars and workshops to educate our employees," said R. M. Marshall, FP&L's vice president for distribution. "We in the utility business truly appreciate the value of timely weather information. We're hopeful that people will heed the National Weather Service's advice to use NOAA Weather Radio."
Safety Officer of the Dade County Public School System John DiBenedetto said that NOAA Weather Radio has become a critical communication tool at every school. "Now that each school has a weather radio, everyone--administrators, teachers, parents and students--feels more secure. Not only do we receive and use the precise and timely warnings, but the radio gives us up-to-the-minute information that helps us plan for many activities including transportation, construction, and maintenance. We can't afford to be without it."
According to Curt Masters, the president of the Dade Association of Academic Non-Public Schools, NOAA Weather Radio receivers are turned on in every member school's administration area. "It was very generous of the Insurance Institute to provide these radios," he said. "We have found them to be indispensable, and a great resource. I hope that everyone who gets the flyer takes time to read it and invest in a NOAA Weather Radio."
The NOAA Weather Radio network, a service of the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has stations covering the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the former Pacific Trust Territories. For more information about NOAA Weather Radio, contact the Miami office of the National Weather Service at (305) 229-4502, the NOAA Weather Radio Program Office at 301-713-1736, or visit the NOAA Weather Radio site on the Internet at www.nws.noaa.gov/nw/.
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