Alerting

It’s time to review your home and workplace severe weather plan

February 27, 2015

March is Severe Weather Awareness Month in Kentucky.

On Tuesday, March 3, at 10:17 a.m., the National Weather Service in partnership with Kentucky Emergency Management and the Lexington Division of Emergency Management will conduct a tornado drill. While the outdoor sirens will NOT sound, NOAA weather radios and other alerting devices will sound off for the drill.

The Lexington Division of Emergency Management encourages everyone to review their home, school and workplace weather emergency plans. This includes:

Have a working NOAA All-Hazards Weather Radio in your home and at your workplace. Make sure it’s turned on and programmed correctly. Most newer radios have battery backup if the electricity goes out. It’s a good time to change those batteries.
In Kentucky, severe weather can happen at any time of the year. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms just don’t happen in the Spring. Be prepared for severe weather anytime.
Look around your home and designate a severe weather shelter area or room. If your home has a basement, this is usually the best place to shelter from severe weather. If your home doesn’t have a basement, identify an interior room or closet with no or few windows on the lowest floor of the house. Ideally, this can be a closet under a stairway or an interior bathroom.
Tell your family members where the room is and during severe weather go there and stay there until the all clear has been sounded.

At work, engage your supervisor or manager to conduct a severe weather drill. Here’s how:

Announce the drill
Head for the approved tornado shelter. Once inside, crouch down low and cover your head with your hands.
Once everyone has reached shelter and the shelter has been secured, announce the drill is over and everyone can go back to their assigned stations or work areas.
After the drill, conduct an assessment. Did everyone go to the shelter? Was the shelter room or area big enough to accommodate all employees? How did you determine that the danger was over?

Learn more about tornado safety here.