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For Immediate Release
September 25, 2006 |
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Connecticut Public Schools
Receive Life-Saving NOAA Public Alert Radios
Washington, D.C. – NOAA Public Alert radios —
a critical source for life-saving severe weather information
and civil emergency messages — are now arriving at public
schools throughout Connecticut and across the country as part
of a program sponsored by the Departments of Commerce, Education
and Homeland Security.
During a ceremony today at Naramake Elementary School in
Norwalk, NOAA Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere
Timothy Keeney was joined by Congressman Christopher Shays
(R-CT) and Norwalk Mayor Dick Moccia to present a NOAA Public
Alert radio receiver to Naramake’s Principal Bob Henry.
“As September 11th and Hurricane Katrina underscored,
the ability to communicate during an emergency is absolutely
critical. The NOAA Public Alert radios will give schools throughout
the Fourth District the capacity to receive information during
an emergency, even if other communications tools aren’t
working,” Shays explained. “This is a really important
tool to help protect our school-aged children and I am grateful
for this support.”
“I am glad to see that the Federal Government, with
the support from Congressman Shays, is supplying NOAA Public
Alert Radio’s to each and every school. Providing our
schools with these radios will give us advanced warnings and
early notification of impending potential dangers (natural
or manmade) as well as necessary instructions, all designed
to help keep our children safe and out of harms way. These
Radios now add another resource to our ever-expanding toolbox
of safety and readiness. Keeping our kids safe and out of
harms way, is a paramount job for our government to do and
I am pleased we are receiving some additional tools to do
so,” stated Moccia.
Developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Public
Alert Radio operates 24 hours a day/seven days a week, sounding
an alarm that will alert school personnel to hazardous weather
conditions and other national or area-specific emergencies,
even when other means of communication are disabled.
“With the NOAA Weather Radio always in operation and
ready to sound warning of hazardous weather or a civil emergency,
it is an essential item in every school, home and business,”
said Keeney.
NOAA Public Alert radios enable the effective delivery of
information, including recommended safety steps, on a wide
range of emergencies. Whether it’s an approaching tornado,
a telephone outage disrupting 911 services, local roads overrun
by flash floods, a derailed train posing a hazardous material
threat, or the urgent need to be on the lookout for an abducted
child, the radio sounds an immediate alarm.
In 2007 NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, celebrates
200 years of science and service to the nation. Starting with
the establishment of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in
1807 by Thomas Jefferson much of America's scientific heritage
is rooted in NOAA. The agency is dedicated to enhancing economic
security and national safety through the prediction and research
of weather and climate-related events and information service
delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental
stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.
Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems
(GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than
60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global
monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it
observes, predicts and protects.
Contact: Sarah Moore, 202/225-5541
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