APPENDIX C: MITIGATION ALTERNATIVES
StormReady The National Weather Service (NWS) established the StormReady program to help local governments improve the timeliness and effectiveness of hazardous weather-related warnings for the public. To be officially StormReady, a community must: • 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 Being designated a NWS StormReady community is a good measure of a community's emergency warning program for weather hazards. Response The protection of life and property is the most important task of emergency responders. Concurrent with threat recognition and issuing warnings, a community should respond with actions that can prevent or reduce damage and injuries. Typical actions and responding parties include the following: • Activating the emergency operations center (emergency preparedness) • Closing streets or bridges (police or public works) • Shutting off power to threatened areas (utility company) • Passing out sand and sandbags (public works) • Holding children at school or releasing children from school (school superintendent) • Opening evacuation shelters (the American Red Cross) • Monitoring water levels (public works) • Establishing security and other protection measures (police) An emergency action plan ensures that all bases are covered and that the response activities are appropriate for the expected threat. These plans are developed in coordination with the agencies or offices that are given various responsibilities. Emergency response plans should be updated annually to keep contact names and telephone numbers current and to ensure that supplies and equipment that will be needed are still available. They should be critiqued and revised after disasters and exercises to take advantage of the lessons learned and of changing conditions. The end result is a coordinated effort implemented by people who have experience working together so that available resources will be used in the most efficient manner possible. Evacuation and Shelter There are six key components to a successful evacuation:
• Adequate warning • Adequate routes • Proper timing to ensure the routes are clear • Traffic control • Knowledgeable travelers
• Care for special populations (e.g., disabled persons, prisoners, hospital patients, schoolchildren) Those who cannot get out of harm's way need shelter. Typically, the American Red Cross will staff a shelter and ensure that there is adequate food, bedding, and wash facilities. Shelter management is a
Wake County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan 2019
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