Staff Writer
The town of Fort Fairfield was recognized last Wednesday as the only StormReady community in the state of Maine. As a way to help Americans guard against the ravages of severe weather, NOAA’s National Weather Service designed StormReady, a program aimed at preparing cities, towns and counties across the nation with the communication and safety tools necessary to save lives and property.
A voluntary program created in 1998 by the NWS’ Tulsa forecast office, StormReady provides clear-cut advice to city leaders, emergency managers and media that would improve their local hazardous weather operations.
Ironically, at the same time Fort Fairfield was celebrating its StormReady designation, a general population Red Cross emergency shelter was opening at the University of Maine at Fort Kent Sports Center, while community shelters, supported by the Red Cross, were also opened in Washburn and Island Falls.
Because of the severe flooding in the St. John Valley, several invited guests were unable to attend the designation ceremony including Hendricus Lolofs, meteorologist-in-charge at the NWS’ Caribou office; Mark Turner, service hydrologist; Vernon Ouellette, director of the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency; Darren Woods, public safety coordinator of the Aroostook County EMA; as well as representatives from the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
“It is ironic that we are here today talking about StormReady when part of northern Maine may be facing one of its greatest natural disaster challenges in history,” said Tony Sturey, warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS’ Caribou office. “What this really points out is that you can never be ‘storm proof,’ just StormReady.
“We’re trying to get folks prepared by having an action plan in place so, for example, with something like what’s happening in Fort Kent, they could pick the things right off that they need to get done and go right down the line like clockwork,” he said. “That’s the real essence of StormReady.”
StormReady is a grassroots effort on improving communication and helping leaders make good decisions, Sturey said.
“Once they have the infrastructure in place and things to fall back on and rely on when the going gets tough, it will be easier for communities to access that information and resources,” he said.
According to the NWS Web site, there are 1,341 StormReady sites in 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam.
“Fort Fairfield and the University of Maine at Presque Isle are the only two sites that have been recognized as StormReady in Maine,” said Sturey. “Kudos to the team in Fort Fairfield that continues to strive to make their community safer for the constituents here.”
Fort Fairfield received its initial StormReady certification in October 2001. Since then, the town has undergone the recertification process several times, including a complete overhaul of its StormReady plan.
“Why would you want to spend so much time and take something that’s working just fine and re-write it?” said Sturey. “Because times change. Things like hazardous mitigation change. There’s two ways to go: you either stay where you are, or you take a stab it, and without hesitation, Fort Fairfield took a stab at it.”
As part of the StormReady certification process, an advisory board, comprised of NWS warning coordination meteorologists, and state and local emergency managers, will review applications from municipalities and visit the locations to verify the steps made in the process to become StormReady. After the advisory board approves certification, the community will receive a formal letter, along with StormReady signs that can be displayed along its major roadways. StormReady communities must stay freshly prepared, because the designation is only valid for two years. The advisory board seeks to officially designate 20 communities each year for the next five years as StormReady.
Fort Fairfield Fire Chief Paul Durepo agreed it was a lengthy process, but well worth it.
“It went from a 17-page document to a 157-page document,” said Durepo, who also serves as the local EMA director. “It was a lot of work, but it worked out well. StormReady is all about being prepared. For us to follow the process and go through this, we ended up with an emergency operating center, backup power, weather monitoring, and most importantly, a shelter.
“If we have an ice out, ice storm or any other major disaster and we lose power,” he said, “our school is now a shelter. We know have back-up power to the building, as well as back-up power for our communications center, and we have constantly trained the fire department. Plans have come together and are working well.”
For information on the StormReady program, log onto www.stormready.noaa.gov.
