Last week, parts of the Raccoon River Valley area experienced damaging storm, but Greene County was one of the unaffected areas.

Usually when severe weather threatens the county, weather spotters are dispatched to whatever part of the county it is expected to hit first.

However, Homeland Security and Emergency Management Coordinator Dennis Morlan says in the past three years he has never had to call out the weather spotters.  He comments that he’s not the only one that has the authority to send out the spotters.  The sheriff or any of the town’s fire chiefs can also initiate it.

Morlan states that he has three radars that he looks at and he’s completely hooked into the National Weather Service and anytime a notice of a severe weather warning goes into effect, he and the Law Enforcement Center knows about it so all rescue personnel are put an alert to respond.

He comments that every other year, his office and any law enforcement agency is required to get re-certified in weather spotting, which is also free and open to the public.  Those interested will have to wait until March or April of next year for the training session or you can go to the Law Enforcement Center and watch the DVD on file of the last session.

 

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