Lakewood To Observe “Severe Weather Awareness Week”

The City of Lakewood will observe “Severe Weather Awareness Week” from March 19-25, 2017.  The goal of Severe Weather Awareness Week is to call attention to the threats posed by weather hazards in an attempt to reduce the loss of life, injury and property damage.  In support of this community awareness and planning objective, the City of Lakewood will sponsor several events during the week to educate children and adults about tornado safety.

Lakewood will also join other cities and municipalities throughout Cuyahoga County in conducting a Tornado Safety Exercise on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 at 9:50 a.m.  Lakewood’s outdoor early siren warning system will sound at that time while tornado drills will be conducted throughout Lakewood City Schools.  Lakewood’s outdoor sirens feature loudspeakers for relaying warning sirens and verbal messages.

According to the National Weather Service, severe weather in Ohio can take on many shapes and forms, including tornadoes, flash floods, lightning and winter storms.  Although Ohio’s number of tornadoes does not rank high in the United States, there were 24 confirmed tornados in 2016, with 11 occurring in one day.    Many of these tornadoes are weak (F0 or F1 on the Fujita Scale), but Ohio has been struck by some of the most destructive (F5) tornadoes on record, including the April 3, 1974 tornado at Xenia, which killed over 30 people and destroyed 2,000 buildings.

In addition to the Tornado Safety Exercise on March 22^nd, the City’s Division of Fire will provide educational materials to elementary schools for students and their parents.