(June 22, 2007) -- Officials from NOAA's National Weather Service recognized John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. as a StormReady® community. Home to NASA's space shuttle launch program, KSC is the first government site in the state and the eighth in the nation to be recognized as StormReady.

At a special ceremony at the Center, NOAA Chief of Staff Scott Rayder and NWS Southern Region Acting Director Steven Cooper presented a recognition letter and StormReady signs to Kennedy Space Center Director William W. Parsons. The StormReady recognition will be in effect for three years when the facility will go through a renewal process.

The nationwide preparedness program uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle local severe weather and flooding threats. The program is voluntary and provides communities with clear-cut advice from a partnership between local National Weather Service forecast offices and state and local emergency managers. StormReady started in 1999 with seven communities in the Tulsa area. Today, there are more than 1,200 StormReady communities across the country.

Located approximately 45 miles east of Orlando, the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station are working government facilities that are home to more than 10,000 military personnel, civilian employees and family members. It is the nation's only space shuttle launch facility and a premier vacation destination for thousands of visitors annually.

"I am very pleased and proud to say that the Kennedy Space Center has met StormReady certification requirements. A proactive approach to hazardous weather preparedness enabled KSC to receive this status," said Parsons. "We now know we have a highly effective severe weather action plan, as well as an effective notification process for the work force when it is necessary."

"StormReady encourages communities to take a new, proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations and public awareness," said Steven Cooper, acting director, NWS Southern Region. "StormReady arms communities with improved communication and safety skills needed to save lives and property."

To be recognized as StormReady, a community must:

• Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center;
• Have more than one way to receive severe weather forecasts and warnings and to alert the public;
• Create a system that monitors local weather conditions;
• 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 on the StormReady program, visit: http://www.stormready.noaa.gov.