Florida Tornado Drill - Stephanie Hendrix - Pinellas County Emergency Management

This week (Feb. 5-9) is Severe Weather Awareness Week. Florida is holding a statewide tornado drill Wednesday (7th). We speak with Stephanie Hendrix, Planning and Preparedness Manager for Pinellas County Emergency Management, about the drill and tornado awareness.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Gordon Bird here beyond the News.This week, the week of February fifth,
is Severe Weather Awareness Week across Florida, and as part of that,
there's a statewide tornado drill happening onWednesday, February seventh. It's happening at
ten am and you can actually participatewherever you are to see whether you are

(00:21):
tornado ready. We have Stephanie Hendrix, who is planning and Preparedness manager for
Panela's County Emergency Management, to talkwith us about that. Stephanie, welcome
to Beyond the News. Thank you, Gordon. Well. Tornadoes, of
course are not theoretical in Florida,even though we're not a state that people
typically think of in terms of tornadoes, especially in a year with El Nino,

(00:45):
we just experienced an EF zero Ibelieve it was a few weeks ago
in downtown Saint Petersburg. Talk tous about the tornado risks that we face
year in and year out in Florida. Yes, Gordon, can occur any
time in a thunderstorm or cold frontmoving into the area, or as a
result of severe weather associated with hurricanes, and actually, historically Florida experience is

(01:10):
stronger and more dangerous tornadoes in thewinter and spring, especially during El Nino
as we're experiencing now, because itcreates an increase in thunderstorms. But we
can also experience tornadoes in the latesummer and fall as a result of tropical
storms and hurricanes. Now, asto the drill that's going to be taking
place statewide on Wednesday, what typesof organizations participate? I assume businesses may

(01:34):
be schools, government agencies. Who'staking part in this drill? Yeah,
so the state and Panel's County EmergencyManagement encourages schools, businesses, nonprofit organizations,
and individuals to participate in the drill. And in Panel's County, we
encourage them to show us how theyparticipate by taking a selfie and in their

(01:55):
safe space and posting it to socialmedia using the hashtag PC Torny drill.
And that's for people who are takingpart in the drill. And I guess
there are a lot of steps toit. Also, you're going to kind
of review your tornado plan beforehand,and also something else that you want to
do is to sign people up toreceive emergency notifications. Yeah. Correct,

(02:21):
So before the drill, we askedthat organizations and individuals identify an emergency coordinator
within their business, the organization,or their family to take the lead and
creating a tornado plan. We askthem to identify a tornado safe space that's
an interior room, hallway, orcloset or stairwell away from windows. And
then we do want to make sureeverybody's signed up for emergency notifications in Panellas

(02:45):
County. They can do that throughalert panelas and the use of already Panelas
app, which they can find ondisaster dot panelas dot gov to receive those
emergency notifications. They can also havean emergency weather radio that they have and
monitored your in the storms. Now, are there actually going to be test
messages that are sent out as partof the drill? Correct, So a

(03:07):
test message will be sent out throughemergency weather radios tomorrow at ten am,
and then we'll also be sending anotification to our alert Penela subscribers at ten
am letting them know that they shouldact like a tornado warning is in place,
meaning that that's the time to puttheir tornado plan into action and get
into their safe space and take cover. We have these tornado drills of course

(03:29):
every year, and they've been aroundfor a very long time. What's the
gauge as far as how much theycontribute to awareness and well people being prepared.
What have over the years people learnedand how have organizations been able to
improve their readiness by taking part inthese drills. So we you know,

(03:58):
through our program fol where we havethem submit through social media, we are
able to see that we get youknow, a good number of participants through
them posting their selfies. We seethat schools are able to practice, businesses
are able to practice. We giveout prizes to those who show good techniques.
You know, we see that organizationsare able to put safety officers into

(04:21):
place after these drills as part oftheir tornado plans, as well as getting
people involved in the community emergency responseteams SERTs throughout the community being able to
implement some of the actions that theyput into these plans. All good to

(04:41):
know. Any other messages that you'dlike to share about tornado awareness and this
Severe Weather Awareness Week Again, Ithink it's just really important to sign up
for emergency notifications and panelas County.To sign up for alert panels and download
our ready panelas mobile application to receivethose notifications. You can find more information
and on that at Disaster dot Penelasdot gov. I think it's important to

(05:03):
understand the difference between a watch anda warning. You know, when you
have a tornado watch, that meanstornadoes are possible in your area and you
need to remain alert, have thosemessaging systems ready. So if you do
have a warning meaning a tornado hasbeen cited or indicated by whether radar in
your area, you have just minutesto put your tornado plan into action.

(05:28):
You just have a couple of minutesto get to your safe space and take
cover. Stephanie Hendrix, Planning andPreparedness Manager for Panela's County Emergency Management,
thank you very much for joining uson Beyond the News. Thank you