The Braselton campus of the Northeast Georgia Medical Center has been designated with the StormReady certification from the National Weather Service.
The hospital received the certification on May 19, and is the first commercial business in the state and one of the first hospitals in the national to do so.
In 1999, the StormReady certification program was created to help communities guard against the ravages of severe weather, said David J. Nadler, warning coordination meteorologist with the NWS. It helps communities better protect their citizens during severe weather, and we re proud to recognize NGMC Braselton as the first commercial StormReady site in Georgia.
The program is voluntary and encourages businesses, communities and emergency managers to take a proactive approach to improving severe weather procedures and provides guidelines for improvement.
Those guidelines include: 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; and develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises
The hospital also worked with representatives from the NWS to communicate through a weather service chat feature only open to emergency services, allowing the hospital to have real time updates from emergency managers around the region.
Preparing for severe weather is a never-ending job, Anthony Williamson, president of NGMC Braselton, and we are delighted to be recognized by the National Weather Service with the StormReady certification. It is an honor to be a part of the National Weather Service s effort to save lives and reduce the impacts from any severe weather that may occur in our area.
