Dubois County is StormReady®
“Tonight, have your weather radios on; between 1 and 4 o’clock this morning some nasty juju’s headin’ this way,” John Gordon, Meteorologist in Charge, National Weather Service Forecast Office Louisville said to the group of weather spotters and county leaders on Tuesday at the Jasper Train Depot.
He was there to present Dubois County with the StormReady® designation for the efforts of Emergency Management Director Tammy Miller and Deputy Director Gary Fritz to keep the residents of the county safe during and after storms.
Commissioner Larry Vollmer commended Miller and Fritz for the management of over 100 storm spotters in Dubois County and the annual training exercises she and Fritz organize. He also joked about the 11 tornadoes that occurred the year after hiring Miller as director in 2010. Since 1950 the county has had 22 tornadoes, 12 have occurred since 2007.
“Without a doubt,” Joe Sullivan, said, “this is the most prepared county (in the Louisville district) as far as spotters go. We know that when things come through Dubois County, without a doubt, we will know about it.”
In addition to the large group of dedicated spotters, Miller and Fritz also worked with emergency responders in some of the smaller communities to install six new weather sirens throughout the county in 2012. These efforts led to the county being granted StormReady® status.
Miller stated the award gave her a sense of pride in the efforts she and Deputy Director Fritz have made to prepare Dubois County for bad weather. “Emergency management and preparedness is a passion of mine,” she said. “Without Gary (Fritz) and his storm spotters we wouldn’t be StormReady®.”
With a line of potentially bad storms predicted for tonight residents have several options to track storms.
Gary Fritz’ site http://weatherspotter.net
Follow NWS Meteorologist Joe Sullivan on Twitter @JoeninoWxMan or https://twitter.com/JoeninoWxMan and @iembot_lmk for more weather information from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet (this is good for discussions about what weather is doing.)
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network at http://www.cocorahs.org/Maps/ViewMap.aspx?state=IN&county=DB
Download the mPing Android or iPhone app to take part in the PING (Precipitation Identification Near the Ground) project. See the live map at http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/ping/display/
On Facebook become a fan of the Southern Indiana Weather page operated by Huntingburg meteorologist Michael Wilhite at https://www.facebook.com/southernindianaweather and Ohio Valley Weather Net’s page at https://www.facebook.com/OVWNET
If you have any other resources for weather information please add it in the comments.
