Management responders prepare for bad weather in Lowndes Co.
LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s looking to be the calm before the storm, so emergency management and first responders are using this time to get ready.
WCBI Chief Meteorologist Isaac Williams met with Lowndes County EMA, law enforcement, firefighters, and city and county officials to brief them on the severe weather risk for this weekend.
EMA is working with other agencies to make sure response is as smooth as possible.
EMA Director Cindy Lawrence reminds people with home health equipment to be sure to have a back-up plan in case the power goes out, and if your equipment is battery operated, charge those batteries now.
She also said to secure any outdoor furniture or other objects, like trampolines, that can become airborne in the wind.
Shelters will be open if there is a need.
“If you’ve lived around here long enough, you know that every few years we have a higher-end type potential severe weather day, and Saturday is that day for us. And, we hope nothing happens. We hope the storms aren’t as intense, but to say we won’t get storms tomorrow, I think, is not a good thing to say. Of course, things could still get not as intense as we expect, and we hope that happens, but based on our training and what we have seen in the past couple of days in our forecast models, it certainly paints Saturday out to be a higher-end severe weather day,” said Williams.
“The shelters will be open when we get the information that maybe there’s a tornado watch here in Lowndes County. We’ll open up our shelters, and we’ll let the public know through the social media, through WCBI, through radio, to let people know the shelters are now open,” said Lawrence.
Lawrence said to be sure to have multiple ways to get weather information, television, radio, NOAA weather radio, or phone apps are all good sources.
