Village of Lombard Receives “StormReady” Community Status

“Lombard continues to maintain a ‘prototype' community severe weather preparedness program and is very deserving of this prestigious recognition,” wrote Jim Allsopp, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who conducted Lombard's recent recertification inspection.

StormReady certification was originally granted to the Village for the first time in 2000, at a time when Lombard was one of only three communities in the state to receive this designation, according to Brian Stuart, Director of Lombard's Office of Emergency Management (OEM.) The recertification is now done every three years.

Allsopp examined the following items during the site visit:

• Emergency operations plan

• Communications and warning capabilities

• Public education

• Procedures and operations

• Community awareness

• Infrastructure and logistics

In the past three years since the Village's last designation as a StormReady community, many new programs and measures have been implemented to ensure compliance and the superior protection that the OEM provides to the Village, its residents and visitors, according to Stuart.

Some of the more noteworthy accomplishments, according to Stuart, include:

• A full-scale multiple agency disaster drill was conducted and outcomes evaluated.

• Additional communications capabilities were added to the Emergency Communications Center (ECC.)

• New volumetric NEXRAD radar software was added to the EOC as an early warning tool.

• Public warning capabilities were increased with the recent addition of CodeRED.

• The Village's Emergency Operations Plan was revised.

• Tornado and severe weather drills were conducted in local schools and target hazard locations.

Lombard's StormReady designation certification is good through September, 2014.