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Local News

Storm and Tornado Awareness Month

A countywide tornado exercise will take place today. March is Severe Storm and Tornado Awareness month for the state of Illinois. Diana Holmes is the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency Coordinator. Holmes says there will be a countywide tornado exercise at 10 this morning as a part of the yearly statewide exercise offered through the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

They ask that every county has their schools, hospitals (and) nursing homes participate in a tornado exercise. Basically all they want them to do is go through their policy on tornado preparedness and what they would do in case of a tornado for those areas.

Another purpose of Severe Storm and Tornado Awareness month is to remind families of the importance of making their own disaster preparedness plan.

It's just a request or suggestion that each family do a tornado plan just like the fire folks ask them to do a fire plan. So everybody knows what their role is, where they're going to meet if the house is destroyed or if they have to evacuate - where the meeting place is - that type of thing.

According to the Montgomery County EMA, should a major event occur, it would take about 72 hours for state and federal resources to come in to help. The EMA encourages families to make sure they have a plan and to practice that plan at least once or twice a year with their family. For more information, call the EMA office at (217) 532-9560 or go to the IEMA Website.Thomack 3/1/16

RFD