Scotland County is recognized as a StormReady county. StormReady
counties are better prepared to protect lives from the onslaught of
severe weather through better planning, education, awareness and warning
capability. No county is storm proof, but being StormReady can help
counties save lives.
StormReady is a nationwide weather
preparedness program sponsored by the National Weather Service. It uses a
grassroots approach to help counties develop plans to handle all types
of severe weather-from tornadoes to tsunamis.
The program encourages counties to take a new, proactive approach to improving local warning capabilities by providing emergency managers with clear-cut guidelines on how to help make their citizens aware of the threat of hazardous weather conditions. The better the citizen is prepared for all types of severe weather, the lower the potential impact on the community and the more effective the emergency response resources are in meeting local needs in a disaster response. Its the old ounce of prevention is worth as pound of cure theory.
Criteria
To be officially StormReady, a county must:
Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center
Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public
Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally
Promote the importance of public readiness
Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.