NOAA Honors North Carolina’s Division of Crime Control and Public Safety

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has presented the Mark Trail NOAA Weather Radio, All Hazards Award to Dr. Kenneth Taylor of the North Carolina Division of Crime Control and Public Safety. The ceremony will take place on June 3 in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Now in its eighth year, the Mark Trail Award program honors individuals and organizations that use or provide NWR receivers and transmitters to save lives and protect property. Twenty award recipients will be recognized nationally this year.

“Dr. Kenneth Taylor of the North Carolina Division of Crime Control and Public Safety, has made a valuable contribution to his community,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA Weather Radio can provide the public with those extra minutes of warning in situations where minutes can save lives.”

The North Carolina Division of Crime Control and Public Safety, working with the National Weather Service, developed an NWR Expansion Plan with the goal of providing comprehensive total statewide radio coverage. This was accomplished through the relocation of existing transmitters and the addition of six new NWR transmitters funded by the State of North Carolina.

The NWR expansion project has provided NWR coverage to over an additional one million North Carolina residents. The North Carolina Division of Crime Control and Public Safety further promoted the use of NWR by distributing nearly 15,000 NOAA weather radio receivers statewide. The receivers were placed in public schools, colleges, hospitals, day cares and nursing homes.

The Mark Trail award is named for the nationally syndicated comic strip character which serves as the campaign symbol for the NOAA Weather Radio program. Since 1995, Jack Elrod, writer and illustrator of Mark Trail, and King Features Syndicate have been strong advocates for publicizing severe weather safety through the use of weather radios.

“Jack Elrod and his alter ego, Mark Trail, have been great partners to NOAA National Weather Service in helping educate the public to the importance of having a NOAA Weather Radio in your home when danger threatens,” said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. David L. Johnson, director of the National Weather Service.

NOAA's National Weather Service is the primary source of weather data, forecasts and warnings for the United States and its territories. The National Weather Service operates the most advanced weather and flood warning and forecast system in the world, helping to protect lives and property and enhance the national economy. To learn more about NWS, please visit: http://www.nws.noaa..gov.

NOAA 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 our nation’s coastal and marine resources. To learn more about NOAA, please visit: http://www.noaa.gov.

Information about NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio and the Mark Trail Award is available at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.