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Severe Weather Awareness Week » Tornado Drill
Southeast Texas Severe Weather Awareness Week
February 24 - March 1, 2008 |
SOUTHEAST TEXAS MOCK TORNADO DRILL
As part of the Southeast Texas Severe Weather Awareness Week, a mock tornado drill
will be conducted on Wednesday, February 27th. If there is a threat of actual severe
weather on that day, the drill will be postponed until Thursday, February 28th.
The purpose of the drill is to give citizens of Southeast Texas a chance to
determine if they can receive a warning, and what to do when a warning is received
or a tornado is occurring. Every citizen is urged to participate by considering the
protective actions that should be taken during a real tornado warning. A large
portion of the population of Southeast Texas are in school during weekdays. When
the mock tornado warning for the drill is issued, schools throughout southeast Texas
are encouraged to participate by conducting a tornado drill and putting their
severe weather emergency preparedness plan into effect. This will give school
administrators and safety officers an opportunity to see how effective their
preparedness plan actually is. If your school does not have a severe weather
preparedness plan, contact your county's director of emergency management or
the Houston/Galveston National Weather Service.
Here are the plans for the drill:
- At approximately 10:00 am a mock
Tornado Warning will be issued by the Houston/Galveston NWS.
This mock warning will be in effect for all 23 counties and will only be issued through broadcast
on the NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio. We will use the code for the Routine Weekly Test
(RWT) to issue this mock Tornado Warning. We will not activate the
Emergency Alert System (EAS). The mock warning will be in effect for 15 minutes.
- At approximately 10:15 am a
Public Information Statement will
be issued to cancel the mock Tornado Warning. This will signify the end of the drill.
Schools that participate with a tornado drill should activate their emergency
procedures when they receive the mock Tornado Warning. Once all of the preparedness actions
have been taken and the students have been moved to your prearranged shelter locations,
you can consider that the drill is over for your school.
Feedback after the drill is very important. Information about the public's ability to
hear the warning is needed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our tornado warning
communication system. Please fill out the evaluation form and relay your comments to your
county emergency management or the Houston/Galveston NWS.
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