AMES, Iowa -- The Iowa State University College of Business will host Severe Weather Awareness Day on Wednesday, March 28, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first floor of the Gerdin Business Building. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of the upcoming severe weather season and how to respond in the event of a severe weather situation.
The event is free and open to the public. It will feature exhibits and displays from a number of campus and local organizations to help educate the public about severe weather. These organizations have confirmed their participation:
- National Weather Service
- American Red Cross, Lincoln Way Chapter
- Story County Emergency Management Agency
- Mary Greeley Medical Center Paramedics
- Ames Fire Department
- Iowa State University Department of Meteorology
- Iowa State University Police
- Iowa State University Department of Environmental Health and Safety
The event also coincides with Iowa's Severe Weather Awareness Week, which takes place April 2-6. It was planned by the College of Business' Emergency Response Committee after a tornado touched down on the Iowa State campus near the Gerdin Business Building in fall 2005. The committee will also be conducting tornado drills in the building in early April.
"How this all started, one of our College of Business students got hurt during the tornado that touched down on campus," said Michele Kohrs, a secretary in the College of Business undergraduate program who is chair of the college's Emergency Response Committee. "The injured student was actually brought into our office and we called the paramedics. I thought that we should be better prepared for emergencies like that, so we formed this committee and now have come up with this event."
Iowa State's Department of Environmental Health & Safety will also be sponsoring Severe Storm Spotter Training, presented by Jeff Johnson of the National Weather Service in Des Moines, for ISU faculty, staff and students following the College of Business event in the Memorial Union. The training will cover a recap of the 2006 Iowa storm season, elements of storm spotting, storm safety and thunderstorm basics including lightning, cloud types and tornadoes.
"The College of Business is the one that spearheaded putting together the Severe Weather Awareness Day," said Angie Jewett, emergency response preparedness coordinator, ISU Department of Environmental Health & Safety. "Since we already had planned to have storm spotter training on that day, we coupled these two events together. That was a day that worked pretty well with people from a couple of different agencies, so we can have good representation there."