Rockford Now StormReady

Wednesday, August 11th, the Chicago Area StormReady Advisory Board certified the city of Rockford as a StormReady Community.  The StormReady program was developed by the National Weather Service along with state and local emergency management agencies to recognize communities, counties, or universities that have established outstanding severe weather preparedness plans.  There are certain requirements that a communty must reach in order to become recongnized:

- A 24 hour warning point and emergency operations center that is manned during severe weather
- Redundant methods of monitoring weather conditions, receiving warnings from the NWS and disseminating warnings to the community
- Trained severe storm spotters and established communications with the NWS
- Educational outreach programs
- Tone activated NOAA Weather Radios in all public buildings

Fire Chief Derek Bergsten and Division Chief Matthew Knott made sure that Rockford met or exceeded all of those requirements.  Rockford is one of 46 communities in Illinois that have become StormReady communities. 

For more information on how to become a StormReady community, click here.