TRAINING SEMINAR SLATED FOR WEATHER SPOTTERS

JACKSON -- A severe weather spotter training seminar will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Jackson American Legion Hall. The speaker is Lloyd Miler, director of the Poplar Bluff and Butler County Emergency Management Agency. Miler is a 28-year veteran in emergency services.

This year's seminar is co-sponsored by the Southeast Missouri Amateur Radio Club and the Cape Girardeau County Office of Emergency Preparedness.

Last weekend's deadly outbreak of killer tornadoes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee leaves no doubt that the 1994 severe weather season has started. Twenty-three people were killed by the storms in Alabama, 16 in Georgia, two in North Carolina and one in Tennessee.

Traditionally, the spring and early summer tornado and severe thunderstorm season in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois begins in early April and peaks in May and early June.

Obviously, no one knows what this year's severe weather season will bring to the Cape Girardeau area. But Brian Miller, Cape Girardeau County Emergency Services coordinator, says early warning, and knowing what to do when a warning is received, is the best defense against killer tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.

Miller said, "Knowing what to do when a severe thunderstorm, flash flooding or a tornado threatens can make the difference between life or death. To know is to live."

Despite the number of weather service radars in the region, including the new Doppler radar unit at the National Weather Service Forecast Office near St. Charles, the first line of protection from severe weather in Cape Girardeau and surrounding counties is the severe weather spotter.

Miller said, "The typical severe weather spotter may be a firefighter, a law enforcement officer, an amateur radio operator, businessman, laborer, or whatever. The important thing is he or she is trained to watch the skies during severe thunderstorm or tornado watches to report any sign of severe weather.

"When severe weather is spotted, word is relayed to us at the emergency operations center by two-way radio, or mobile telephone. At the EOC, we relay that information to the radio and television stations and over our severe weather warning and spotter radio network."

Miller said Cape Girardeau County works closely with weather spotters in other counties, especially those to the west and southwest of Cape Girardeau. He said, "If severe weather occurs in Butler, Wayne, Stoddard, or Bollinger counties, there's a good chance it will move into Cape Girardeau County later on. By staying in close contact with the folks in the counties to the west of us, we pretty well know the history of the storm system before it moves into our county."

Miller urged anyone interested in becoming a severe weather spotter to attend the Wednesday seminar.

"We're always looking for more trained weather spotters for our severe weather notification network," said Miller.