OSWEGO COUNTY – The National Weather Service (NWS) has re-certified Oswego County as a StormReady Community in a program that recognizes local efforts to enhance response plans as well as monitor and distribute weather information.
“Oswego County takes a proactive approach to monitor, prepare for and respond to weather emergencies,” said Oswego County Legislator Marc Greco, District 24, chairman of the Oswego County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee. “We’ve seen some significant storms in the area this summer and we give kudos to our entire emergency services and management teams for being prepared to handle them.”
Terry Bennett, emergency services program coordinator for the Oswego County Emergency Management Office (EMO) presented the StormReady certificate from the NWS’s Buffalo Forecast Office to the committee on behalf of EMO Director Cathleen Palmitesso.
“Being recognized as a StormReady Community by the National Weather Service is a result of the partnership among county agencies such as the E-911 Communications Center, County Fire Coordinator’s Office, Emergency Management Office and others,” she said.
In his announcement of the re-certification, Michael Fries, acting meteorologist-in-charge of the NWS Buffalo Forecast Office, said, “This success is clearly a result of your vision and leadership, and your hard work and commitment to the citizens of Oswego County.”
Oswego County first received the designation in 2004. The 2023 StormReady recognition is valid for four years.
EMO partners with the other county offices such as the E-911 Communications Center and the Fire Coordinator’s Office as well as the Oswego County Emergency Communicators/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), an amateur radio group, and the National Weather Service to ensure weather information is received and distributed.
“The StormReady program can help communities save lives,” Fries said. “Oswego County has demonstrated its ability to warn residents quickly when hazardous weather is in the vicinity.”
To be certified as 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 also 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.
NWS will hold a winter SKYWARN training program on Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Oswego County Emergency Management Office, 200 N. Second St., Fulton.
“This class will train Oswego County residents on how to provide observations on winter events to the National Weather Service,” Palmitesso said. “This helps the agency provide more accurate information to the county, which helps us in protecting public health and safety.”
For more information on weather emergencies in Oswego County, go to www.oswegocounty.com/emo for the Oswego County Emergency Management Office or https://www.weather.gov/buf/ for the National Weather Service-Buffalo Forecast Office.
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