March 26, 2009
Bowling
Green, Ky. - As Severe Weather Preparedness Month winds down, a group of Western Kentucky University meteorology students is doing its part to make sure Warren County is ready when the next storm hits.
Members of the StormTopper Network, which formed last year after severe storms hit the Bowling Green area, participated in a Damage Assessment Training session March 21 led by Ronnie Pearson, director of Warren County Emergency Management.
“The one thing about meteorology students is most of us really enjoy going out in the field and spotting for storms, watching radar and getting information out to help other people,” said Crystal Bergman, director of the StormTopper Network and a graduate student in WKU’s Department of Geography and Geology.
As part of the training, students learned how to determine whether a structure was destroyed or sustained major or minor damage. “What happens just after a storm has passed through is very important because people may be injured or public infrastructure may be damaged, which could threaten others,” Bergman said.
Having the StormToppers trained in storm spotting and damage assessment will benefit Warren County emergency management personnel and residents, Pearson said.
“They are able to deploy spotters in the field and give us a bird’s eye view of what’s happening in specific locations and allows us to make faster decisions about evacuations and warning to citizens in the city and county,” he said.
During a high-wind event in early February, the StormTopper Network deployed spotters to several locations, such as Cemetery Road, U.S. 68-80 and U.S. 231, and communicated via radio with emergency management and with the network’s Central Command at WKU’s meteorology lab in the Environmental Sciences and Technology Building.
Students at Central Command were responsible for communicating with spotters, emergency management personnel and local media, watching radar and monitoring the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center for up-to-date weather information, and submitting e-spotter reports to the weather service.
“Members of the StormTopper Network are dedicated to not only providing real-time weather data out in the field to Emergency Management personnel during severe weather,” Bergman said, “but also to helping the community by providing crucial information after the event that could save lives and property.”
Member of the StormToppers include: Crystal Bergman of Frankfort; Jane Marie Wix of Brandenburg; Lisa Heartsill of Radcliff; Allison Keefe of St. Louis, Mo.; Ian Blaylock of Knoxville, Tenn.; Kyle Mattingly of Owensboro; Marcus Bagwell of Nashville, Tenn.; Nathaniel Shearer of Berea; Jason Walker of Springfield, Tenn.; Brynnan Beckman of Bowling Green; Ronnie Leeper of Bowling Green; T.J. Malone of East Prairie, Mo.; Kyle Thompson of Henderson; Jon Wahl of Louisville; Tony Bedel of Florence; Angela Stethen of Bedford.
“It is a University-wide student learning goal to engage students in communities other than their own, and the StormTopper Network is a perfect example of student engagement,” said Dr. Greg Goodrich, Meteorology Program Leader. “Our meteorology students are taking classroom knowledge of radar meteorology and severe weather and then interacting with local and federal government agencies to do community service.”
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Crystal Bergman at (270) 745-2813.
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