Fridley Public Schools Has Become StormReady!

Fridley Public Schools is the latest location to become StormReady in Minnesota.  A ceremony was held during a school board meeting on Tuesday, April 19th to recognize the district's efforts to become more resilient to severe weather hazards.  Fridley Public Schools is only the third district in the state of Minnesota to reach such status, with Hopkins School District and Intermediate 287 the only two others.

Pictured: Dennis Craft, Director of transportation, building, and grounds with Fridley Public Schools (left); and Bill Borghoff, Senior Meteorologist at NWS Twin Cities (right).

Being part of a Weather-Ready Nation is about preparing for your community's increasing vulnerability to extreme weather and water events. Americans live in the most severe weather-prone country on Earth. You can make sure your community is StormReady®. Some 98 percent of all presidentially declared disasters are weather related, leading to around 500 deaths per year and nearly $15 billion in damage. The StormReady program helps arm America's communities with the communication and safety skills needed to save lives and property--before, during and after the event. StormReady helps community leaders and emergency managers strengthen local safety programs.

StormReady communities, counties, Indian tribal governments, universities and colleges, military bases, government sites, commercial enterprises and other groups are better prepared to save lives from the onslaught of severe weather through advanced planning, education and awareness. No community is storm proof, but StormReady can help communities save lives.

StormReady uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of severe weather—from tornadoes to hurricanes. The program encourages communities to take a new, proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations by providing emergency managers with clear-cut guidelines on how to improve their hazardous weather operations. Applying is easy. To be officially StormReady, a community must:

• Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center
• Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public
• Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally
• 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.

To apply, see the How to Become StormReady page.