The city of Jackson is the 15th Mississippi community to earn the National Weather Service's Stormready designation.
There was a ceremony marking this achievement at city hall Thursday morning.
Stormready is a nationwide program of the National Weather Service that helps communities protect their citizens during severe weather and encourages communities to take a proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations.
Jackson mayor Harvey Johnson says, "Being storm ready does not mean we are storm proof. It does mean we are prepared to make sure that our citizens, their lives, their property, are protected and prepared for emergencies that come along."
To be recognized as Stormready, a community must:
· establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center.
· have multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public.
· promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars.
· create a system that monitors weather conditions locally.
· develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.
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