Bayside, WI, StormReady® Ceremony was Tuesday August 21, 2012

PRESS RELEASE

National Weather Service Forecast Office

Milwaukee/Sullivan, Wisconsin

Contact: Rusty Kapela For Immediate Release

rusty.kapela@noaa.gov August 17, 2012

Village of Bayside Certified as StormReady®

In a brief ceremony on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 at 1 P.M. CDT, the Village of Bayside was recognized as the first community in Milwaukee County to be certified StormReady®. Two 2’ x 2’ informational signs and a certificate were presented to Village officials. This certification is valid for three years through July 6, 2015. Bayside originally satisfied StormReady® criteria on July 6, 2012.

The ceremony was held at the Bayside Village Hall, 9075 N. Regent Rd,

Below is a picture of the ceremony. Click on image for larger version.

From left to right...Rusty Kapela, WCM, WFO Milwaukee; Barry Mitchell, Milwaukee County Emergency Manager; Ben Schliesman, Southeast Regional EM Director; Steve Brueske, MIC, WFO Milwaukee; J.J. Wood, Forecaster, WFO Milwaukee; Mike Pedersen, Bayside Management Fellow; Sgt. Dale Schoessow, Bayside Police; Andrew Pederson, Bayside Village Manager; Bruce Resnick, Bayside Police Chief & EM Coordinator; Steve Bronner, North Shore Fire Department.

StormReady® is a national community preparedness program that uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of severe weather. In general, a community must possess a solid communication network, and provide verification of its multi-hazard emergency operations plan. Specifically, in order to become StormReady®, the community must:

• Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center;
• Have multiple methods to receive and disseminate severe weather warnings and information;
• Have various methods to monitor weather conditions locally;
• Promote the importance of public readiness;
• Develop a formal hazardous weather action plan, including severe weather spotter training and drills.

Communities in Wisconsin previously designated StormReady® include the cities of Lake Mills, Whitewater, Cedarburg, Waupaca, Belleville, Viroqua, Dousman, Hillsboro and now Bayside. Counties of Lincoln, Oneida, and Racine are StormReady® as well. The Green Bay Packers; Hortonville High School in Outagamie County; Weather Central, Inc./My Weather, LLC in Madison; VCPI in Milwaukee; Oxford Camp Freeland Leslie BSA; the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes in Green Bay; the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, and NBC-15-WMTV in Madison are StormReady® Supporters. Several other Wisconsin cities and/or counties are currently working toward their StormReady® designation.

Here is a link that shows a map of these StormReady® sites (it does not include StormReady Supporters): http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/communities.htm

Nationally, as of August 13, 2012, there were 1951 StormReady® Sites in 50 states, Puerto Rico & Guam.

Please contact Michael Pedersen, Bayside’s Management Fellow at mpedersen@bayside-wi.gov for details concerning the Village of Bayside. Mr. Pedersen spearheaded their StormReady® efforts and worked closely with J.J. Wood, Forecaster at the Milwaukee/Sullivan NWS Forecast Office.

The National Weather Service (NWS) would appreciate extensive news coverage of Bayside’s StormReady® designation. This will increase the public’s awareness of the program.

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Bayside, WI, StormReady® Ceremony was Tuesday August 21, 2012