By: Eric Fisher

SOUTHWICK, Mass. (abc40) -- To help towns monitor the weather, plan ahead, and get the word out in dangerous situations, the National Weather Service offers a program called StormReady.

"Perhaps the biggest success story that's come out of StormReady is from Van Wert, Ohio," says Glenn Field, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Taunton. "An F4 tornado was bearing down on a local movie theatre, which was eventually destroyed. The seats people had been sitting in had cars on top of them. And no one was injured."

Field says that because the town had received its StormReady certification and had a plan in place, it was able to quickly alert the theatre, get people into a shelter, and protect them from a disaster. Nationally, there are nearly 1500 cities and towns involved in the program.

Closer to home, there are 8 StormReady Communities in Massachusetts. In Western Mass., there are two (Southwick and Agawam). There is also a StormReady commercial site (Six Flags) and a StormReady University (Harvard). Southwick was the first town in the state to qualify.

"It's backed by the town and is an integral part of public safety," says Charles Dunlap, Emergency Management Director for Southwick.

The town now has all the equipment necessary to keep communication intact and survive a natural disaster, including two vechiles fully equipped with everything from computers and generators to food and water.

To become StormReady, a city, town or commercial site must excel in six specific areas. Those areas are communication, ability to receive NWS updates, hydrometeorological (water) monitoring, local warning dissemination, community preparedness, and administration.

Field says that most towns already have a lot of the infrastructure in place before the process even begins.

For more information on how a community can get involved, you can visit the National Weather Service online at www.weather.gov/boston. Click on the "StormReady" link on the left hand side.