N.C. Provides Weather Radios for Sr. Citizens

Gov. Mike Easley announced that 164 senior centers in North Carolina will soon receive a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radio to warn seniors and staff members of tornadoes, hurricanes and other weather-related emergencies.

The weather radios will be delivered to the centers next month, just in time for the height of hurricane season.

“A few minutes warning can mean the difference between life and death,” said Easley. “That is why it is so important to have weather radios in place, especially where people gather in large numbers.”

The N.C. Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service in the Governor’s Office is paying for the senior center radios through a $5,000 federal grant.

Installing weather radios at senior centers is one more way the state helps citizens prepare themselves for disasters. In recent years, the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety has distributed more than 13,000 weather radios to public schools, daycare centers, nursing homes and hospitals.

Despite predictions for a more active hurricane season this year, a recent poll indicated most North Carolinians were not very concerned about, nor prepared for, major storms. About 54 percent of those interviewed said they did not feel vulnerable to damage from a hurricane, related tornado or flooding.

More than half of those questioned said they had no disaster plan and 68 percent did not have an emergency supply kit. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. conducted the poll of North Carolinians in May.

Source: Office of the Governor of North Carolina