Saratoga County has joined 31 other New York counties in attaining a StormReady designation through the National Weather Service.
Stephen DiRienzo, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service’s Albany office, presented Saratoga County with the certification.
“The county of Saratoga is extremely proud to be one of 32 counties to receive the StormReady certification,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Kevin Tollisen of Halfmoon. “I am proud of this StormReady certification and commend the county’s Office of Emergency Services staff for their proactive approach to enhance public safety. Our residents should know that all of our departments are prepared to handle weather related incidents, and that their safety is our top priority.”
“The StormReady certification recognizes the ongoing commitment to public safety by our emergency services agencies (police, fire, and EMS),” said Emergency Services Commissioner Carl Zeilman. “As part of the county’s preparedness efforts, this certification compliments the county’s recent updates to its Comprehensive Emergency Management and Multi-Jurisdictional All Hazard Mitigation plans.”
StormReady is a national community preparedness program that helps communities develop plans to handle all types of severe weather. In general, a community must possess a solid communication network and have a comprehensive multi-hazard emergency operations plan.
In order to become StormReady, the community must:
• Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center;
• Have multiple methods to receive and disseminate severe weather warnings and information for their community;
• Have various methods to monitor weather conditions locally;
• Promote the importance of public readiness;
• Develop a formal hazardous weather action plan, including severe weather spotter training and drills.
The county’s efforts include continued Storm Spotter training of town and city emergency management, law-enforcement, EMS and firefighters, and placing weather radios in county buildings.
As of March 27, there were 55 StormReady sites across the state: 32 Counties, nine Communities, 11 universities, one commercial site, one government site and 13 StormReady supporters.
