Fla. county to offer hundreds of free weather radios

Needy and elderly are targeted
 
By Nancy Imperiale
Orlando Sentinel (Florida)
Copyright 2007 Sentinel Communications Co.

DeLAND, Fla. — More than 1,200 free weather radios will be handed out to needy Volusia residents under a plan local officials will unveil today.

Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno is expected to announce the radio distribution at a news conference at 10 a.m. with officials from the National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service and Florida Division of Emergency Management, who are gathered at Daytona Beach International Airport for a pre-hurricane preparedness tour.

"Our citizens deserve our protection, and we encourage everybody to have a weather radio, and use it as you would the smoke detector in your house," Bruno said.

"We are providing radios for those who can't afford them, but encouraging those who can afford them to go out and buy them . . . . Our experiences with tornadoes in December and early February emphasized the importance of having access to accurate and timely notification of severe weather."

The county spent $24,000 in surplus grant money on 1,200 Reecom radios. The radios issue alerts for hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, forest fires, oil spills, amber alerts and homeland security warnings. They can also be programmed to broadcast warnings to specific areas.

Radios will be given away to three groups of people: low-income families, elderly people and those who live in mobile homes. The radios are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Residents of cities as well as unincorporated areas are eligible.

To qualify under income guidelines, a family of three, for example, would have to have a household income of less than $54,360 per year.

Applications and radios will be available at Volusia County's main and branch public libraries.

"All people need to do is go in, fill out a brief application to qualify, and get your radio," Bruno said.

If the program is successful and more radios are needed, the county will pursue additional grants, Bruno vowed.

"I am grateful that we were able to provide these lifesaving radios for our citizens," Bruno said, "especially with hurricane season right around the corner."

Bruno said giving away a limited number of radios is more cost-effective than the estimated $7.7 million it would take to outfit Volusia with weather-warning sirens.

"Our Community Services department has been researching this since the tornadoes hit our area recently," Bruno said. "We feel this is the responsible way to offer our residents protection."