City/County Emergency Management Office

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release                                                                                For more information contact

February 22, 2010                                    Richard McBrayer, Office of Emergency Management 485-3362

Victoria OEM Receives Official StormReady
Recognition at UHV Program Feb. 26

(VICTORIA, TEXAS The Victoria Office of Emergency Management is pleased to announce that this Friday, 26 February, representatives from the National Weather Service will be coming to Victoria to officially recognize the City and County as “Storm-Ready”.

In August 2009, Victoria County was designated a, “StormReady County” by the National Weather Service. Victoria County joins only 21 other Texas counties currently designated, and is the first coastal StormReady County in the state.

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 official ceremony will take place at the Alcorn Theater at the University of Houston-Victoria at 1 p.m. and will include:

• Welcoming remarks from City of Victoria Mayor Will Armstrong
• A presentation on the Storm Ready Program from John Metz (Warning Coordination Meteorologist with NWS Corpus Christi)
• Victoria Storm Ready and Moving Forward from Jeb Lacey, CEM (Victoria Office of Emergency Management)
• Closing Remarks from Judge Don Pozzi (Victoria County)

In recognition of “Severe Weather Awareness Week”, the Victoria OEM encourages all community partners to take advantage of this and other opportunities to learn more about severe weather preparedness. For more information about the Storm-Ready Program, individuals may visit http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/.

For questions regarding this release, please contact: Richard McBrayer, Victoria Office of Emergency Management at 485-3362.

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