County Public Safety Director Bill Hamilton, County Public Safety Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Becky Feracioly and HazMat Coordinator Randy Brozenick and County Commissioners Pat Fabian, Jason Renshaw and George Skamai receive the county’s StormReady placard from National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Fred McMullen (far left)
by Jonathan Weaver
A community weather workshop held in Ford City last year has helped the National Weather Service with severe weather events, and Armstrong County was recognized for their commitment Thursday.
County Public Safety Director Bill Hamilton, County Public Safety Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Becky Feracioly and HazMat Coordinator Randy Brozenick all received certificates from National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Fred McMullen and Armstrong County was designated “StormReady.”
McMullen said Pittsburgh meteorologists rely on local SkyWarn severe weather spotters - even as recently as last week’s wind advisories.
“Weather effects everybody, and seven out of 10 people turn to local news in Pittsburgh because of the weather so this is a great opportunity for us to work with them and make folks in Armstrong County safer. We have all this fancy technology, but we don’t know what’s really going on down on the ground - that’s why we need eyes and ears.
“Armstrong County is one of the counties with the most people that report river ice to us because of the issues in East Brady, Parker, Rimer - we get a lot of river ice pictures from folks up here. It’s a win-win not only for the county, but the National Weather Service.”
More than 45 local residents attended a free workshop last year in Ford City, and Feracioly also said the link to online classes will soon be available on the county website.
“We spend blue-sky days planning for grey-sky days,” Hamilton said.
While StormReady was organized in Oklahoma about 15 years ago, it was widely-acclaimed by 2009.
“SkyWarn has been around since the 1970’s. There’s about 400,000 people nationwide - locally, around 3,000,” McMullen said. “As time goes on, those numbers increase. We train about 1,000 people a year.
“Now, with the advances of technology, a lot more counties have been able to get into the program because of Internet, cell phones, etc. (During) the Hempfield Township (Westmoreland County) tornado back in March 23, 2011, our phone rang nonstop for 90 minutes.”
In the past six years, Armstrong County has held at least three SkyWarn classes. Another might be held as soon as early Spring next year.
Classes in Butler and Indiana will also be held before the end of March.
Emergency officials are also going to take part in statewide weather drills in April and December.
