Pineville, NC

... Public information statement...

This is severe weather awareness week in Georgia. Families and
individuals... as well as employers and other organizations... are
urged to use the information provided this week to devise their own
severe weather safety plans. If you already have a plan in place...
you are encouraged to use this opportunity to review your procedures
and perform drills and exercises based upon your plan. 2011 was an
unusually active year for severe weather across north Georgia and
surrounding areas... with multiple strong to violent tornadoes
reported. There are no guarantees that 2012 will be less active... or
will not be even more active than 2011. The time to prepare for
violent weather is right now.

Throughout the week... we have discussed the various types of severe
weather that pose a threat to Georgia each year. The National
Weather Service has responsibility for issuing warnings and watches
of severe weather. Your local Weather Service office maintains
strong relationships with local news media outlets and emergency
management officials to ensure that the warnings and watches are
sent to the public as soon as the National Weather Service releases
the information. This system has proved to be a very effective way
of receiving weather information... as long as you happen to be
watching television or listening to the radio when the warnings and
watches are issued.

It is not uncommon for severe weather... including tornadoes to
affect our region late at night and in the early morning hours. This
poses the question of how you in the public can receive warnings of
tornadoes and violent thunderstorms while you are asleep... or when
you lose power. Even if you have an effective severe weather plan in
place... that plan is useless if you have not ensured that you have a
reliable means of receiving warnings at All Hours of the day.

The most effective method of receiving warnings during these times
is via NOAA Weather Radio. These rather inexpensive yet life-saving
devices can be purchased at most electronics stores. Basic NOAA
weather radios are battery-operated and are equipped with an audible
alarm that can be triggered when a severe weather warning or watch
is issued for any County in your particular broadcast area.
However... more sophisticated models are available that are equipped
with specific area message encoding... or same... technology. This
feature allows the radios to be programmed to alarm only when a
warning or watch is issued for your County. You can also program
many of these devices to alert only for certain types of warnings or
watches.

Cell phone technology is also taking on an increasing role in
receipt of warnings. Some private vendors offer services that allow
you to receive a text message or other alert on your Mobile phone or
pager device if a warning is issued for your general area. Other
applications make use of the GPS system in smart phones to alert
your phone only if a warning is issued for your specific location. A
simple internet search will provide more information on some of
these services.

For more information on NOAA Weather Radio... safety... and other
weather information... visit our website at weather.Gov/gsp.