NWS Huntsville Deparment of Commerce Bronze Medal Award

NWS Huntsville Awarded Second Department of Commerce Bronze Medal

WFO Huntsville forecasters Jason Elliott (left) and Brian Carcione (right) pose with the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal plaque outside the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Representatives from the National Weather Service forecast office in Huntsville recently went to Washington, D.C. to receive another Department of Commerce Bronze Medal, the office's second in 2 years (the first was awarded in December 2004 for work during the May 2003 floods). The medal, shared with NWS offices in Blacksburg, Wakefield, and Sterling, VA, Raleigh, NC, Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, State College, PA, Binghamton, NY, and Birmingham and Mobile, AL, was awarded for customer service that enabled emergency managers and citizens to take life-saving actions during Hurricane Ivan, which struck the United States in September 2004. Ivan made landfall along the Alabama Gulf Coast and tracked across the state on September 16. In addition to causing wind and flooding damage across Alabama, the storm's remnants caused massive flooding across the northeastern United States later that week. Forecasters Jason Elliott and Brian Carcione were the office representatives to the awards ceremony, which took place on Friday, March 17.

Representatives from 11 NWS offices pose together on stage with NOAA Administrator Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher (far left) and NWS Director General David L. Johnson (far right). NWS Huntsville's representative, forecaster Jason Elliott, is second from right.