*****PRESS RELEASE*****
CITY OF BRENTWOOD
FIRE AND RESCUE
From: Fire Chief Brian Goss
Date: May 13, 2013
Subject: Press Release: Storm Shelter Registration
You may be safe in your storm shelter, but can your first responders find you?
You may be safe in your storm shelter, but can your first responders find you?
In May of 2011, a F5 tornado tore
through Joplin, Missouri killing 161 people and leveling one-third of the
city. While many resident’s lives were
spared by safely gathering in residential storm shelters or cellars, in several
cases fallen trees and structural debris covered the access doors making their
escape difficult or impossible altogether.
First responders conducting door-to-door searches for the injured and
trapped often moved past these confined survivors because they were not aware
of the existence of the storm shelters or where they may be located.
To help ensure that this type of
situation does not occur here, the Williamson County Emergency Management
Agency (EMA) has implemented a county-wide Storm Shelter Registry program. By registering your storm shelter in the
county’s database, first responders would know specifically where to search for
survivors in the event of a tornado or other severe weather situation.
According to EMA Director Mac Purdy,
“The master registry will allow us to identify structures with storm shelters
in a storm’s path. While all damaged structures are searched, this storm
shelter list will assist emergency responders as they conduct search and rescue
operations, expediting the accountability process.”
The Williamson County EMA launched the
program in cooperation with the Brentwood and Franklin Fire Departments in
response to the growing number of households that are installing tornado
shelters in Williamson County.
The program is free and completely
voluntary, but we urge everyone who lives in Williamson County and has a storm
shelter to register. For more
information, please visit http://inigo.williamson-tn.org/storm_shelter or follow the
link on the Prevention and Education Page on the City of Brentwood website.
