Muskingum County Prepares For Severe Weather Awareness Week

ZANESVILLE, Ohio. – The state of Ohio will be taking part in their Severe Weather Awareness week from Sunday, March 17, until Saturday, March 23.

The goal of the awareness week is to highlight that we are getting closer to the severe weather season. Tornadoes are one of the deadliest natural disasters. The state of Ohio wants to make sure their citizens are prepared as they can be, if a tornado were to touch down. With the devastating storms that happened earlier this month in Alabama, Emergency Management Agency Director, Jeff Jadwin said the state of Ohio is going to do everything they can to prepare.

Jadwin said, “Then on Wednesday the 20th, at 9:50 AM, we will have a state wide tornado siren or disaster siren or whatever you want to call it test to make sure that everybody is aware of what they sound like and what’s going to happen.”

Jadwin also said every Wednesday after, Muskingum County will test their 44 tornado sirens at noon.  Jadwin wants everyone to know that these tests will be weather dependent. If its sunny or even if its raining they will set them off to test, however he says if there is a chance of severe weather, they will not test because they do not want to confuse anyone.

“Our tornado sirens are an outdoor warning system. If you live close to a siren you might hear it inside, but hopefully you’ve got the weather alerts on your smart phone, or you have a weather radio so that you get those emergency alerts when they come out,” Jadwin said.

In the event of a tornado, you should seek shelter in the basement of your house. If you do not have a basement, seek shelter in a room that does not have any windows and preferably in a small area of space.