On March 16, the National Weather Service made a presentation to the County Commissioners recognizing Charles County as a StormReady Community.
StormReady is a nationwide community preparedness program that uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of severe weather—from tornadoes to tsunamis. The program encourages communities to take a new, proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations by providing emergency managers with clear-cut guidelines on how to improve their hazardous weather operations.
To be officially StormReady, a community 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 through community seminars
• Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.
For more information contact the Charles County Department of Emergency Services at (301) 609-3400.