Kellye Junchaya: Welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum Round Table! Kellye Junchaya: The Round Table today is our monthly CFP discussion, and I am pleased to serve as your host. Kellye Junchaya: A couple of quick reminders for any first timers with us today... Kellye Junchaya: The session will consist of about fifteen minutes of introduction and overview, and then we will open it up to audience participation. Kellye Junchaya: If a URL is displayed in the chat window, it will appear blue. If you click on it, it will open the linked Web page in your browser window. Kellye Junchaya: After the first one, the window may not come to the top automatically, and be hidden behind your chat screen. Use the buttons on your status bar to bring the browser window forward. Kellye Junchaya: After the presentation, we will leave time for questions, comments and audience discussion. I will go over the procedure at that time. Kellye Junchaya: Our topic today is "The National Weather Service Outreach Program" Kellye Junchaya: We are please to present the speaker for today's topic, Ron Gird. Ron is a meteorologist with the NWS and is responsible for managing all aspects of the NWS Outreach Program. In addition, Ron manages the NWS Hazard Awareness and Preparedness Programs and is a technical consultant to several prestigious organizations. Kellye Junchaya: Ron also did a presentation at this year's CFP conference which was very interesting. The new Outreach Program includes a lot of improvements and goals for the NWS services. Kellye Junchaya: Welcome Ron, and welcome to anyone joining us from your office as well. Thank you for being here today! Ron Gird: Good afternoon, I am glad to be here. Today I am going to start by talking about the importance of weather as reflected in the following quotes: Ron Gird: "Weather is big business. It can help or hurt a community. One-seventh of our economy, about $1 trillion a year, is weather sensitive." William M. Daly, Secretary, Department of Commerce Ron Gird: "The highly accurate long-range predictions issued by the (NWS) Climate Prediction Center....led California to conduct major mitigation efforts...led to a reduction of losses of about $1 billion." Stanley A. Changnon, Illinois State Water Survey Ron Gird: Today, the NWS is at a crossroads. Science and technology are improving rapidly and NWS customers are more demanding and expecting more. They need more integrated products and services, from minutes to years. Ron Gird: Our strategy includes the following Vision Statement: to be America's no surprise weather service, a world-class team of professionals who Ron Gird: 1. Produce and deliver quality forecasts you can trust when you need them the most, 2. Use cutting edge technologies, Ron Gird: 3. Provide services in a cost-effective manner, 4. Strive to eliminate weather-related fatalities and improve the economic value of weather information. Ron Gird: NWS has a new Nation-wide Outreach Program for all employees. The following slide lists our goals. Slide 1 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/NWS1.htm Ron Gird: The following slide lists the plan elements. Slide 2 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/NWS2.htm Ron Gird: Next I will talk about some of the major NWS Outreach Campaigns. Ron Gird: 1. Project StormReady: Project StormReady includes: Communication / Education / Detection / Warning Decision / and Response. Benefits include improve the timeliness and effectiveness of hazardous weather warnings for the public. We plan to add 20 communities annually. Ron Gird: 2. Advanced Hydrological Prediction Services (AHPS): This should increase program visibility for customer support http://tgsv5.nws.noaa.gov/oh/ahps/index.htm Ron Gird: 3. Low-Water Crossings: Our goal is to reduce annual fatalities in cars. As little as six inches of water may cause you to loose control of your vehicle. Ron Gird: 4. Hurricanes and Inland Flooding: Our goal is to reduce annual flooding deaths Ron Gird: 5. NOAA Weather Radio: Increase broadcast coverage, greater broadcast to the public http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/ Ron Gird: 6. Emergency Manager broadcast of Weather, (EMWIN): Increase redistribution sites for more Emergency Managers to receive this broadcast Ron Gird: This next slide shows some specifics about our efforts to deliver better products and services. Slide 3 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/NWS3.htm Ron Gird: That concludes our presentation Kellye. I would be happy to try to answer questions or take comments regarding this strategy. Kellye Junchaya: Thank your Ron for the overview. We will now give the audience an opportunity to ask questions or give comments, however... Kellye Junchaya: please first enter just a question mark to indicate you wish to contribute, prepare your comment, but wait until you are recognized by name... Kellye Junchaya: then either hit the Enter key or click on the Send button. We will take comments in the order the question marks are submitted. We are ready to start now. Darryl E Parker TFT: ? Kellye Junchaya: Darryl, please. Darryl E Parker TFT: Will NOAA Weather Radio encode EAS messages or forward them from other agencies? Ron Gird: yes, as long as they are coded properly by the other agencies.. Darryl E Parker TFT: ? Rick Tobin: ? Kellye Junchaya: continue Darryl Darryl E Parker TFT: Does NOAA have the capability to receive messages from other agencies? Amy Sebring: ? Ron Gird: stand by one for this answer... Ron Gird: technologies and local adaptations vary.... Ron Gird: we work with these groups and the local and state EAS groups to... Ron Gird: interact with local NWS offices to ensure NWS can receive their signal... Ron Gird: and also receive their messages. Kellye Junchaya: Rick, you're next. Rick Tobin: I've often wondered, what is an acceptable loss of life from a disaster? When does the return on budget no longer justify more programs? Does NWS ever discuss these issues internally? I know it's a tough subject. But, how many times must we tell people that if they do stupid stuff they will die...and they do it anyway? Kellye Junchaya: (Good question!) Ron Gird: No, we have never equated loss of life with budgets. Kellye Junchaya: Amy, your question please. Amy Sebring: Have you ever considered using NOAA Weather Radio to broadcast preparedness information to the public during non-emergency times? Robert Lecky: ? Ron Gird: This is being done on an office by office basis. Kind of like promos. Amy Sebring: ? Kellye Junchaya: Robert, please Robert Lecky: What's the relationship with local broadcasters and NOAA? We often get different predictions. Ron Gird: for watches and warnings we encourage cooperation from broadcasters... Ron Gird: for general forecasts, the TV meteorologists has a lot more freedom. Kellye Junchaya: Amy, please Amy Sebring: In follow up to my previous question, do you know of any specific office that is using NWR for "promos" and is there any national policy to encourage this? Billy Zwerschke: ? Ron Gird: I don't know that there is a policy...but we certainly encourage it... Ron Gird: I would check with any of the central plains offices and this type of promo is often used during severe weather awareness weeks. Kellye Junchaya: Billy, you're next Billy Zwerschke: Where is the Congressional Bill that will prohibit only giving severe weather alerts? Amy Sebring: (Billy is referring to an effort by some private weather service companies to restrict NWS products.) Ron Gird: As far as I know, the house has passed the resolution, however the Senate has chosen not to vote on it. Rick Tobin: ? Billy Zwerschke: It will make information come from private weather companies. Thanks Kellye Junchaya: Go ahead Rick Rick Tobin: I have a huge respect for NWS and NOAA, and I think they've really helped a lot during the El Nino response in California...but once again, as we invest in new programs, how do we measure their effectiveness? Are we really saving more lives or are we just providing more data? It seems that there needs to be some way to tie tax dollars to effectiveness of programs. You know the Deming mantra: If it can't be measured, it can't be managed? Ron Gird: yes, NWS has produced measure for our performance.... Amy Sebring: ? Ron Gird: we have produced a 20page NWS strategic plan. copies are available. Ron Gird: as of now the plan is on the web..... Ron Gird: se are trying to get the address..... Tom Hardy: we serve 2 townships in MI, from time to time with different forecasts. Ron Gird: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/modernize/strategic-plan.htm Amy Sebring: I have stated in this forum several times what a big NOAA/NWS supporter I am, in terms of working with local emergency managers, however, I find that the employees tend to be scientists, and not communicators especially. Do you provide any training to employees on public relations, communications etc.? Amy Sebring: (I do think they provide excellent info via Web especially.) Ron Gird: Each of our 121 field offices has a Warning Coordination Mets (WCM)... Ron Gird: These folks are our customer service reps to emergency management.. media.. etc... Ron Gird: They have been trained in PR and customer service and also train the forecast staff. Amy Sebring: ? Kellye A Junchaya: Ron, how many people are working on the Outreach Program nationwide? Kellye A Junchaya: Is it a small committee or are there people all over the country working together? Ron Gird: 121 warning and coordination meteorologists in each forecast office... Ron Gird: plus a WCM in the Storm Prediction Center Norman-OK and the national hurricane center- Miami .... Ron Gird: and the aviation weather center- Kansas City and finally 3 people at NWS-HQ to manage the program Kellye A Junchaya: Thanks, Amy you're up. Amy Sebring: Ron, does NOAA/NWS have any kind of mailing list to which we could subscribe to keep up on the progress? For example, the publication of your strategic plan in August. I missed that completely somehow. Ron Gird: yes, we have the quarterly AWARE report..... Ron Gird: you can access it via http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/ Amy Sebring: ? Kellye A Junchaya: Can you double check that Ron? Amy go ahead. Amy Sebring: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/ Amy Sebring: Is there a place to subscribe? Ron Gird: send a message to: linda.kremkau@noaa.gov. she will add you to the mailing list. Amy Sebring: Current issue is http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/awarenow.htm Amy Sebring: Great thanks. Amy Sebring: ? Amy Sebring: Ron, do you have any info on the current status of additional AHPS funding? Is it still a possibility for this next fiscal year? Ron Gird: no, not sure.. the topic is still being resolved between the House and Senate. we are trying to reach John Ingram... Ron Gird: John Ingram is on the line giving us the latest, stand by.... Ron Gird: we are still talking to John Ingram ...... Amy Sebring: I would think that the flooding due to Floyd would have demonstrated the need! Kellye Junchaya: Is there somebody from your office with us today that you would like to introduce while we wait? Ron Gird: House approved $1M and Senate $2.2M for initial AHPS implementation in the upper Ohio River and upper midwest. The Conference markup is scheduled for this week. Ron Gird: Joining me today is John Ogren and Herb White, fast runners and dialers on the phone getting the latest information as it unfolds. Amy Sebring: Glad to have Herb and John with us today. Amy Sebring: Any other questions or comments for Ron? Kellye A Junchaya: I wanted to ask you a question about Storm Ready... Ron Gird: john and herb are responsible for interfacing with the EM community Kellye A Junchaya: You said that you were adding 20 communities annually and I wanted to know how you choose which communities to add and... Kellye A Junchaya: how they are actually "added" Ron Gird: StormReady is a recognition program where individual EM's apply to an advisory board made up of Federal, State and local officials... Ron Gird: It was piloted in Tulsa, OK and is in the process of becoming a national program. Kellye A Junchaya: After Floyd, there may be many communities wanting to participate. Ron Gird: We will be presenting StormReady in Louisville at the IAEM conference. Kellye A Junchaya: Are there any other questions? Amy Sebring: ? Kellye A Junchaya: Amy Amy Sebring: Is there anything on the Web yet on Storm Ready? Robert Lecky: ? Kellye A Junchaya: Robert, your question please Robert Lecky: What is StormReady? Where is the info? Ron Gird: The national plan is a work in progress...however the Tulsa project can be found at http://www.nwstulsa.noaa.gov/stormready.html Kellye A Junchaya: Ok. I think we are about out of time. Kellye A Junchaya: Thank you so much Ron. You did a wonderful job. Kellye A Junchaya: And thank you audience for your participation today. Ron Gird: Thank you for making this possible. we would love to do it again