Pictured (from left to right) are James Walsh (Emergency Manager Naval Air Station Whiting Field), Captain Rick Sadsad (Commanding Officer Naval Air Station Whiting Field), and John Purdy (Senior Forecaster National Weather Service Forecast Office in Mobile). Also representing the National Weather Service, but not pictured, was Jeff Garmon (Warning Coordination Meteorologist National Weather Service Forecast Office Mobile). (Photo: WFO Mobile)
(Oct. 2, 2009) -- Officials from NOAA's National Weather Service have recognized Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Florida as a StormReady® community. Whiting Field is the second government/military complex in Florida to receive StormReady recognition.
Jeff Garmon, warning coordination meteorologist and senior forecaster John Purdy of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Mobile presented Naval Air Station Whiting Field officials with a recognition letter and Storm Ready signs at a special ceremony on September 23rd, 2009 at Naval Air Station Whiting Field. 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 1,500 StormReady communities across the country.
To be recognized as s 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.
"This is a great accomplishment for Whiting Field," said base Commanding Officer Capt. Enrique Sadsad. "We have been training and preparing, and if something were to hit us, we know we would be as prepared as we can be."
