Volunteers In Tupelo Could Soon Receive Severe Weather Training

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – Tupelo residents living near one of two new storm shelters may soon be able to receive specialized training to help whenever there is a severe weather event.

As director of Parks and Recreation for the city of Tupelo, Alex Farned wants to be sure this new storm shelter, in the Lee Acres subdivision, is stocked with the essentials,  before the threat of severe weather.

Recently, nine parks and rec employees completed “Community Emergency Response Team” training.   CERT instruction helps team members provide basic services so first responders can help the public when severe weather strikes.  The park and rec employees can provide services at either the Lee Acres shelter, or a similar one at Theron Nichols Park.

“It touched on a lot of different things, from first aid, to triage situations, to how to handle a lot of people at one time, handle stress,” Farned said.

The city wants to also provide that training to residents living near one of the two shelters, to make response time more efficient and effective, in case there’s an emergency.

“It aids as a comfort zone to help give these people a place to seek safety, shelter and then we get all updates in shelter by phones, weather radios, we ‘re always keeping up with what’s going on to handle the situation at hand,” Farned said.

The Tupelo Fire Department has a CERT instructor, to train any citizen volunteers.

Details are expected to be announced soon about the specialized emergency training for volunteers.