FEMA: Receive Warning Before a Disaster Strikes With a NOAA Weather Radio

FEMA: Receive Warning Before a Disaster Strikes With a NOAA Weather Radio: "Receive Warning Before a Disaster Strikes With a NOAA Weather Radio

Release Date: January 4, 2006
Release Number: 1605-151
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Weather is unpredictable and can be dangerous, but with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio you can be informed before bad weather strikes. The Alabama Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommend that homes and businesses have a weather radio to warn listeners about approaching severe weather.

The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting weather information direct from National Weather Service (NWS) offices across the country. Warnings are sent 24 hours a day following an alarm tone alerting listeners. Broadcasts are also translated into Spanish to serve the Hispanic population.

Weather radios are available at electronics stores across the country and may cost from $25 to $100. While FEMA does not endorse a particular make or model of weather radio, there are some features you should look for when purchasing one:

* Alarm tone—this allows the radio to be on but silent, allowing for a special tone to alert you to severe weather.
* Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME)—this feature provides area specific information by filtering out alerts that do not impact your immediate area.
* Battery operated—since there will be times when electrical power is unavailable, a radio should be able to operate on batteries.
* Tunable to all NWS frequencies—for the latest list of frequencies visit www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr
* For the hearing and visually impaired—this allows radios to connect the alarms to other attention getting devices like personal computers and text printers.

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