National Weather Service officials have recognized Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto as a StormReady® Supporter.
“StormReady encourages communities, facilities, and organizations to take a proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations and public awareness in partnership with their local National Weather Service office,” said Jim Belles, meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service forecast office in Memphis, Tenn.
The nationwide community 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 the local National Weather Service forecast office and state and local emergency managers. The program began in 1999 with seven communities in the Tulsa, Okla. area. Today, there are more than 2,100 StormReady communities and sites across the country.
To be recognized as StormReady, a facility 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 people within the facility; create a system that monitors local weather conditions; promote the importance of public readiness through the organization; and develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training about severe weather operations and holding emergency exercises.