Severe Weather Awareness Week is March 19-25

Ohio’s Spring Severe Weather Awareness Week – March 19-25 – provides the opportunity for Ohioans to prepare their homes, schools and businesses for potential severe weather. Bowling Green State University’s Emergency Management office recommends taking time now to review emergency plans, get reacquainted with weather warnings and watches and update safety kits and supplies.

Preparing for potential severe weather and the conditions associated with it, including lightning, flooding, flash flooding, tornadoes and extreme heat, helps to protect lives and reduce injuries and property damage.

“It is important that we stay vigilant, know what to do and how to stay safe during severe weather events such as tornadoes, floods, windstorms, thunderstorms, lightning, extreme cold and severe heat, to name a few,” said Matthew Keefe, BGSU emergency management coordinator. “The BGSU Department of Public Safety is taking severe weather preparedness to the next level by working on becoming a National Weather Service StormReady University, which will allow us to better prepare our students, faculty, staff and guests for the increasing vulnerabilities of extreme weather through planning, education, training and awareness.”

As part of this effort, Emergency Management has placed at least one emergency alert weather radio in every occupied building on campus.

The University’s Department of Public Safety is following the state of Ohio’s guidelines in getting the message out about preparing for severe weather. On Wednesday (March 22) at 9:50 a.m., Bowling Green will take part in the Statewide Tornado Drill. The purpose of the drill is to sound and test outdoor warning sirens. Buildings on campus that have internal weather receivers/notification systems will also be activated for the same duration. Schools, businesses and households are encouraged to practice their tornado drills and emergency plans. This is a good time to review emergency procedures.

As part of the University’s emergency plan, students, faculty and staff are automatically enrolled in AlertBG, a way to communicate emergency information. Text messages and emails are sent to the campus community in the event of emergency or severe weather closures. Users may add one additional cell phone number and/or email address by visiting the MyBGSU site. Click on the AlertBG tab at the top of the Welcome page.