Austin Peay State University again designated by National Weather Service as StormReady

Clarksville, TN – Clarksville and Montgomery County are no strangers to severe weather, as flood, thunderstorm and tornado warnings are common occurrences in the lives of its citizens.

It is for just that reason that Austin Peay State University’s emergency team has consistently reacted quickly to alert the campus community to any potential danger. For instance, whenever tornado warnings are received, APSU sends a text and an email message to students, faculty and staff, and the outdoor public address system brings weather warnings to attention.

Because of APSU’s efforts to keep the campus informed of weather situations, the National Weather Service has again certified APSU as a StormReady community.

To commemorate the designation, a brief presentation of the StormReady sign to be placed on the APSU main campus was held Tuesday, April 21st, in the lobby of the Browning Administration Building.

“(Achieving StormReady certification) is not something we do for ourselves — we do it for the students,” Austin Peay State University President, Dr. Alisa White, said. “This is something we do because we are committed to ensuring the safety of all of our students.”

StormReady is a nationwide community preparedness program that uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of severe weather — from tornadoes to tsunamis. 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.

To be certified StormReady, a community must achieve the following criteria:

• 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.

APSU joins eight other universities and colleges in Tennessee as StormReady sites, including Belmont University, Vanderbilt University, University of Tennessee, Knoxville and University of Memphis.

“From our standpoint, we can observe (the onset of dangerous weather) and alert a school or community, but the message can become (lost) if those people aren’t prepared to handle what may be coming,” said Larry Vannozzi, of the NWS’s Weather Forecast Office in Nashville. “So what we are really trying to achieve (through StormReady) is ensuring that the right information is getting to the right people locally, so that people can be better prepared for bad weather.”

There are 159 universities in the nation designated as “StormReady” by the National Weather Service.

For more information on APSU’s procedures plan, contact the Public Safety/Campus Police office at 931.221.7786, or email at apsupolice@apsu.edu. For more information on the NWS’s StormReady program, visit www.stormready.noaa.gov