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15 Expand Life-Saving NOAA Weather Radio Coverage
Photo
by Daniel Gropper
Darrell Wilson (left) was among 15 recipients of this year's Mark Trail
Awards for significantly strengthening NOAA Weather Radio coverage across
the nation. Darrell received his award from (left to right) Vice Admiral
Lautenbacher, Jr. USN (ret.); Jack Elrod, writer and illustrator of syndicated
Mark Trail cartoon strip; and Brig. Gen. Jack Kelly USAF (ret.), director
of the National Weather Service. He was honored for recognizing the critical
need to supplement Tennessee's exisiting coverage so that his home community
and medical center would have the benefit of possibly life-saving protection,
and then ensuring that the necessary coverage was in place. Darrell reports
that, "Benefits were immediately apparent. The very afternoon installation
was completed, a round of severe thunder storms hit our area, the same
round that produced a tornado that devastated an area 40 miles away."
"NOAA Weather Radio has been the difference between life and death,"
said Vice Adm. Lautenbacher at a recent ceremony honoring those who have
been key to expanding and improving NOAA Weather Radio coverage across
the nation. Fifteen individuals and groups received Mark Trail Awards
at the Capitol Hill event.
The award is named after syndicated comic strip character, Mark Trail,
official spokesman for NOAA Weather Radio since 1997. Jack Elrod writes
and illustrates the syndicated comic strip, which has featured NOAA issues
and NOAA Weather Radio nearly 60 times. At the luncheon, Brig. Gen. Jack
Kelly, director of the National Weather Service, said that, "tireless
efforts to ensure that more Americans tune into the life-saving coverage
of NOAA Weather Radio exemplifies the true spirit of looking out for your
neighbor." The 2002 Mark Trail Award winners are:
• South Dakota Governor William J. Janklow and Minnehaha County
Sheriff Michael Milstead, of Sioux Falls, for using NOAA Weather Radio
to provide urgent civil emergency information. Gov. Janklow also purchased
10,000 NOAA Weather Radio receivers for state, county, and local governments;
• Judge Ray B. Stanley, Polk County, AR., for helping to extend
NOAA Weather Radio coverage in the Ouachita Mountains, which are prone
to tornadoes and flash floods;
• The Sam's Club Spirit volunteers, of Muncy, PA., for raising
funds to purchase NOAA Weather Radio receivers and distribute them to
hospitals, senior centers and child daycare centers throughout Lycoming
County;
• The Rural Utilities Service of the Department of Agriculture
for issuing $5 million in matching grants to fund NOAA Weather Radio transmitter
expansion in rural America;
• The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM) for
buying and installing two new NOAA Weather Radio transmitters, providing
coverage for about two million residents. NJOEM also installed 3,000 radio
receivers in all school administration buildings;
• George Bisso, of Redmond, WA., for helping to bring the
Puget Sound NOAA Weather Radio transmitter to the Miller Peak area of
the state, where coverage did not exist;
• Kenneth D. Lowden, of Angola, IN., for fund-raising efforts,
resulting in NOAA Weather Radio coverage for Steuben County;
• Larry Collins, an emergency manager in Sidney, NE., for
bringing NOAA Weather Radio coverage to the area in June 2001;
• Walter Henry and the Clinton County, Iowa Emergency Management
for working with local merchants to offer NOAA Weather Radio receivers
at a reduced cost;
• Mid-Rivers Telephone Cooperative, Inc., of Circle, MT.,
for purchasing and installing four new transmitters, which filled the
largest gap in NOAA Weather Radio coverage within a non-mountainous U.S.
area;
• Darrell Wilson, of Paris, TN., for expanding NOAA Weather
Radio coverage in a rural area of the state;
• Clarke-Washington Electric Membership Corporation, of Jackson,
AL., for providing free tower space for the new Jackson transmitter and
buying NOAA Weather Radio receivers for local schools;
• Mark Roisen, of Appleton, MN., for securing funds for a
new NOAA Weather Radio transmitter that was installed and given to the
National Weather Service;
• Sam Minter of N.W. Electric for expanding NOAA Weather Radio
coverage across 19 counties in Missouri; and
• Robert David and Jerry McCoy, emergency managers in Michigan's
Isabella and Montcalm counties respectively, for making NOAA Weather Radio
available to more than 300,000 Michigan residents.
To learn more about NOAA Weather Radio, please visit http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/.
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