Kenton County earns StormReady designation скачать в хорошем качестве

Kenton County earns StormReady designation

KENTON COUNTY, Ky. (Scott Dimmich) -- Kenton County has a new distinction: being a National Weather Service StormReady community. "Since a large amount of the declared disasters that we respond to throughout the commonwealth - and for that matter through the United States - are related to weather, we felt it was certainly to our advantage to dedicate a lot of effort to enhancing our capabilities as it relates to storm preparedness," said Kenton County Emergency Management Director Steve Hensley. Becoming StormReady is more than just having a weather radio in the office. The Kenton County Emergency Management Agency office had to go through an extensive list of items to become StormReady and get the designation. Hensley said, "We went through every portion of our policy that relates to storm-related issues, whether it be the notification process, when we activate our storm warning sirens, how we get our alerts out, how we get out good, credible information to the residents of Kenton County in a timely fashion." Lessons learned from the March 2, 2012 tornadoes made it easier for Kenton County to earn the StormReady designation. "We were able to install two additional storm warning sirens as a part of this process, which brought our total to 36 throughout the county. We were also able to - with corporate partners - to obtain weather alert radios and put them in each of the schools throughout Kenton County," said Hensley. Having a formal hazardous weather plan, a system to monitor weather conditions, extensive disaster training, and efforts to educate the public on severe weather means Kenton County residents and officials are better prepared for storms. "It feels good that Boone, Kenton, and Campbell County work together in standardizing their procedures. We're all working off of the same page," said Rick Watkins, the Emergency Planner for Kenton County Emergency Management. Hensley said, "We view it not only as an accomplishment for our office but for preparedness and enhancing safety of all of those in Kenton County." Follow Scott Dimmich on Twitter @Local12Scott and LIKE him on Facebook