St. Louis officials urge people to be prepared for severe weather

AccuWeather

Sarah Russell, with the St. Louis Emergency Management Agency, joined AccuWeather for a live interview on March 14 to discuss how the city is bracing for the potential of severe storms.

Transcript

00:00St. Louis, Missouri, one of many cities in the paths of tonight's severe weather.

00:04Sarah Russell is Commissioner of the City of St. Louis Emergency Management Agency and she joins

00:09us now. Thank you so much, Sarah. What are you most concerned about about heading into tonight's

00:14severe weather event? So tonight we're actually, you know, in a spot where we're in a moderate

00:22risk zone or the red zone if you're looking at the weather service products.

00:27And that's a place that we're not used to being a whole lot of times. A lot of times we're in

00:32that marginal area where we've got the chance, but certainly tonight we know we have more of

00:37a risk than we usually do. So making sure that everybody in our general public is aware of that,

00:43you know, enhanced risk and still ready and prepared to take action whenever

00:50we move into the warning zones. I know there are a lot of different hazards out there. Some parts

00:54of Missouri are facing at least the risk for wildfires before storms arrive. So what are

00:59your teams preparing for ahead of the high winds and potential tornadoes later on? Yeah, so for us

01:06in the city of St. Louis, you know, we're still a little bit outside of that red flag warning zone.

01:11We have been part of that in previous weeks, but for us the severe threat is, you know,

01:18our focus for tonight. The heavy winds, strong storms and potential for damage and possibility

01:25of tornadoes are our primary concerns. So even though we are early in the severe

01:31weather season, what messages do you have for residents to stay safe for not just today,

01:36but even as we head into tomorrow? Our messages are typically the same. You know, we have those

01:42three steps that we ask people to take. Having a way of staying informed or receiving emergency

01:47alerts from wherever your local place is, whether you're using, for example, for us our notify STL

01:54notification tool or a weather app or, you know, some other app that gets you that information.

02:01We want you to be informed. We want for you to have an emergency plan, what you're going to do,

02:06where you're going to take shelter. If you have to reunify with your family members after a

02:11situation, how you're going to communicate with them. We want you to have that kind of scripted

02:16out ahead of time. And then, of course, encouraging people to have emergency supplies,

02:21whether you're in your home, in a vehicle, or at the office. Have some things to keep you safe and

02:27comfortable whenever you're impacted by a storm or another emergency event. All right. Well, Sarah

02:33Russell, we appreciate all that you're doing to keep those in the city of St. Louis safe.

02:37Major metro area under a tornado watch deeper into the evening. Thanks again, Sarah. Thank you.

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