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Winter Weather Awareness Week 2011

WHAT?  Winter?  Already Time to Think and PLAN!?

winter-weather 2011-2012Last winter will live in the record books for a long time.  Of course, by defnintion, history will last… um… forever.

But with another uncertain winter ahead, what should we keep in mind, especially during Winter Weather Awareness Week 2011.

Let me remind you that during the winter months it is time to start to prepare for the Severe Weather Season that faces us for 2012.  Winter is the time to get things DONE and put to bed.  In North Alabama, Southern Middle TN, and the rest of the nation’s tornado belt, it is almost like preparing for War.  It is a mindset that people who don’t have to worry about tornadoes just don’t comprehend.

But let’s comprehend this.  Now, in the TN Valley, we have 2 major tornado anniversaries near 6 months apart.  April 27, 2011, compared to November 15, 1989.  2 times of the year that represent the chance for loss and devastation  to all of us who live in the Tornado Belt of the Southeast and Mid-South.

So this Winter Weather Awareness Week, make sure you are ready for winter… shovels, ice and snow melting chemicals, and the reminders as to how to drive in snow and ice.

But, if there is another Tennessee Valley or Huntsville Tornado coming our way, you will be glad that you have spent time planning your entire safety plans.

1.) Counseling:

If you need help following the April 27 Huntsville tornado, seek help, and don’t feel embarrassed.  The post traumatic stress that is occurring for thousands of our neighbors is real and palpable.  If you need assistance, schedule help.  It might take months to even start your path to revocery.

2.) WeatherCall:

Make sure that when tornadoes threaten the TN Valley and Huntsville once again, you have a system in place that you don’t have to worry about batteries, turning it on or off, or watching it to get your information.  TV is great, but you have to be watching the right station at the right time during the right time of day to get help.  Weather Radios? Those of you who have them likely don’t have batteries, have them unplugged due to them going off  ‘ALL the time’, or have learned to ignore them due to their county warnings.  Sirens… if it is storming, middle of the night, you might never hear them.  But a PHONE CALL!  You will always awaken to answer a phone call!  Get WeatherCall HERE NOW!  Leave your information in the form on the right of this page and you will receive a year for FREE.

3.) Storm Shelters and/or Safe Rooms:

Even if you have notification, you need a place to go.  During the EF-5 Huntsville tornado on April 27th, lots of our neighbors lost their lives in the ‘proper shelter’, closets, bathrooms, hallways, etc., but for those in Storm Shelters and Safe Rooms, you don’t hear stories of life disaster from these folks.  If you can afford one, get one, at Huntsville Tornado Shelters.com, but call TODAY.  There are lots of peope scheduling to have them put in.  Don’t – do it now.  Get it as your Christmas gift for your family.  Or if you are in a neighborhood of homes, mobile homes, or campers, pitch in with several, and get a 8, 10, 12, or 20 person storm shelter and share the costs.

Folks, Winter Weather Awareness Week is a great time to get ready for the War of 2012.  Please take it seriously, and spend time checking things off your safety list.

Brad Huffines, Meteorologist , National Notification Consultant  -WeatherCall, Contract Instructor – FEMA EMI

Huntsville Tornadoes – April Makes 22 Years of Nerves Sensitive

22 Years Later, We Won’t Forget That Huntsville Tornado

Huntsville tornadoIt was the afternoon drive on November 15, 1989, as traffic backed up on Airport Road.  Unbeknownst to those sitting in their cars while facing east, an F-4 Huntsville tornado was bearing down on them.  Residents of South Huntsville along with owners and their employees were facing another business as usual day on a day that just felt eerie.

November was not supposed to be that warm, sticky, breezy.  Thousands who left for work that afternoon remember the air just felt funny.

The weather warning industry still had a LONG way to go.  Doppler Radars were just being installed around the country.  The National Weather Service did not have the warning technology they have today.

And there it was.  A “Severe Thunderstorm Warning” that included much of Madison County, in the midst of a Huntsville Tornado Watch.  But for all who remember being near Airport Rd. that day, it was a storm that came without warning.

21 souls lost.  500+ injured.  Hundreds of thousands of nerves made forever sensitive.  And thanks to the hundreds of our friends and families either killed, injured, or rattled by the tornadoes of April 27, the would will never close, as another opens.

Every time North Alabama residents hear the voice on the other end of their WeatherCall regarding a potential Huntsville tornado, pulses race…

…a Tornado Warning for your immediate area.  The sirens whine, and that old familiar feeling in the pit of your stomach starts again.

Today we remember, but today we must also act.  Since that day, the National Weather Service has not missed a tornado of that magnitude thanks to amazing warning technology.  The warnings are better than ever before, though in many cases, more frequent because of that very technology.  The weather vendors around the nation are clamoring for the pocket books of any company willing look ahead to the next tornado disaster, frequently over-charging for their services, driving thousands of companies who want protection out of of the marketplace.

If you are looking for the most afforable, highest quality emergency weather notification system in the nation, look no further than WeatherCall Enterprise.  An outgrowth of the wildly popular and proven life-saving WeatherCall product offered by 80 TV stations across the nation, WeatherCall Enterprise takes the exactness of NWS storm specific warnings, and creates a 24/7 automated monitoring and notification system that provides safety at a never before seen price-point.

Why?  To allow companies who feel overwarned and underserved by traditional warning systems or overcharged by traditional notification companies a choice to keep their employees safer and their business operations more predictably smooth.

While you are here, take time to leave your contact information and take home a year of WeatherCall @Home free.  Contact me, former WAAY-31 Chief Meteorologist Brad Huffines, about WeatherCall Enterprise, and what it can do for your business, and how affordable peace of mind and OSHA compliance really is.  You can find me at 256-444-1234, or by email at [email protected].

Consider an underground shelter or safe room from Huntsville Tornado Shelters.com

From 4 to 20 person shelter capacities, you will be surprised how affordable they really are, especially for your business (community safe rooms for 50 or even 100 people also available there, as well as above ground safe rooms).

Thanks to the NWS technology, WeatherCall, and modern communications devices, larger tornadoes will seldom surprise again.  So the next time a Tennessee Valley or Huntsville tornado threatens, and they will… you will be prepared, and with a storm shelter, you will have a place to go.

Remain Safe by Planning to BE Safe.

Brad Huffines, Meteorologist, WeatherCall National Notification Consultant, FEMA EMI Contract Instructor

It’s Been 6 Months Since the April 27th Huntsville Tornado

April 27 Huntsville Tornadoes – So Many But So Few Words

Huntsville Tornado damageFolks, I have so few words and so many emotions this morning.

After speaking with Danny Holmes again yesterday, and after reading more emails from people in Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, AL, and NOW looking back at some of the Huntsville tornado coverage from April 27, 2011…

  • when over 40 tornadoes touched down in an 11 county area in North Alabama;
  • when over 230,000 phone calls were made by WeatherCall, and over 156,000 delivered messages to home phones and cell phones;
  • when many more hundreds of thousands of text messages and emails were sent out by WeatherCall;
  • when over 150 of our friends and neighbors lives were ended;
  • When our lives were all changed that day;
  • when we went from knowing NO ONE who had ever lost their entire house to a tornado to knowing 10 to 20 people;
  • when meteorologists, first responders, treating doctors and nurses, and social workers, dropped to their knees after emotional exhaustion set in dropping them to their knees in helplessness, we all lost what was left of our deniability and weather innocence.

To those Huntsville tornado survivors, who cannot get the sound of losing all they have, in some cases, family and friends, I pray for you today.

To those who lost friends and loved ones that day and the days after, when lingering lives were taken away, I pray for you today.

To the first responders and to the National Weather Service, who did ALL THEY COULD that day, days leading up, and days after, I pray for you.

To all who’s innocence was stripped to nothing that day, I pray for you.

If you can afford it, get a Storm Shelter.  If you cannot afford a storm shelter or safe room, talk to friends and neighbors, and go in together on a big one (like an LS-20 underground storm shelter).  Most importantly, sign-up for WeatherCall (for free at huntsvilletornadoshelters.com when you leave your email address or just look to the right of this page if you’re already on the site) and learn to depend on it.

Remember, share, volunteer, love.

Brad Huffines – Meteorologist, National Notification Consultant, WeatherCall

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> Ever wanted to know WHY Brad has left television, what his passions are and what drives him?  Watch The WeatherCall Effect & Huntsville Tornadoes – The Brad Huffines Story

Training For the Next One (ie, Huntsville Tornado)

National Emergency Training Center

Huntsville tornadoThe best way to prepare for another Tennessee Valley or Huntsville tornado is to leave the Valley and get the proper training.  That is the mission of the Emergency Management Institute at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, MD.  Here, teams of instructors all have real life experience in dealing with natural and man-made disasters.  Being the only broadcast meteorologist to ever instruct for the Emergency Management Institute, I have a very unique take on emergency information and public information, and how the two work together.

It is my 15 years of FEMA instruction and my 27 years as a broadcast meteorologist that brought me to actively market WeatherCall’s family of products, from WeatherCall for your Home to WeatherCall Mobile with Lightning Detection to WeatherCall Enterprise, the uniquely affordable weather risk solution for businesses of all sizes.  And knowing that EF-5 tornadoes, which frequently visit Huntsville and surrounding areas, have an above ground survival rate of as little as 20%, the best way to insure your family’s LIFE during a Huntsville tornado is to have the best notification in the nation and the best storm shelter in the country, Lifesaver Storm Shelters of North Alabama.

This week at the EMI in Emmitsburg, MD, we are teaching emergency managers, police, fire, EMS and community services from local communities from across the country (and even from the military, NOAA, and the CIA) how to better work together before, during and after a disaster.  The poor fictitious residents of Central City, in Liberty County, in the fictitious 51st state of the United States called Columbia, will once again get SLAMMED by a series of explosions, car accidents, chemical plant eruptions, massive outdoor public events, a high rise fire that will take several more lives and injure scores.  By doing this, we are giving these students, some very well experienced public and civil servants, experience with stress, problem solving, and bringing solutions.

What do I take away from this training?

More learning, more friends, and more people with whom I will be in contact for life in our joint efforts to make Americans safer before, during, and after disasters.  One thing about facing a Tennessee Valley or Huntsville tornado threat.  We KNOW they will come again… and again.  YOU need to prepare for their inevitability by getting WeatherCall and a Lifesaver Storm Shelter.

Act TODAY.  If you are interested in FEMA training and serving your community, go to the FEMA Training Website, and learn more.  Perhaps one day you’ll be in one of the classes I teach.  Or even Vice Versa!

Brad Huffines – Meteorologist
National Notification Consultant, WeatherCall
Adjunct Instructor of Media and Meteorology, DHS/FEMA EMI
Husband, Father, Friend

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