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OU ANNOUNCES $550,000 PUBLIC SAFETY GRANT RECEIVED BY OKLAHOMA CLIMATOLOGICAL SURVEY
je/12-4-96
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NORMAN - A customized weather information program for public safety agencies is being developed by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey at the University of Oklahoma with a $550,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
OCS will establish computer links for 32 public safety agencies -- including police, fire and civil emergency management organizations throughout Oklahoma -- and tailor weather information to meet their needs. the new program is called Oklahoma's First-response Information Resource System using Telecommunications, or OK-FIRST.
OU President David L. Boren said, "The awarding of this grant is another example of the natural leadership being provided by OU in the field of meteorology."
The customized weather information will allow public officials to respond more quickly and effectively to impending severe weather, hazardous material spills, range fires and other weahter-related emergencies, which may affect lives and property.
"This grant is a wonderful opportunity for Oklahoma to lead the nation in public safety and state weather information services," said U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. in announcing the award. "This advanced knowledge is important with Oklahoma's unpredictable weather, and in the end, it will save lives."
The program will utilize data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, a network of 114 automated weather stations across the state which provide observation reports to OCS electronically every 15 minutes. In addition, National Weather Service data from 10 to 15 radars in and around Oklahoma will be available through a partnership with Unisys Weather Information Services of Kennett Square, Penn.
"This innovative program wil place Oklahoma in a position to be the role model for the other 49 states in providing information from the modernized weather service to public safety agencies of Oklahoma -- fire, police and emergency management," said Kenneth Crawford, OCS director and OU profesor of meteorology.
OK-FIRST will use two existing telecommunications networks to distribute specifically tailored weather information to local communities. The first, OneNet, is a statewide fiber optic network managed by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. The second network is the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Telecommunications System operated by the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.
In addition to the National Weather Service, other agencies supporting the effort include the Oklahoma State Department of Civil Emergency Management, OU's Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, and OU's Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies.
"A lot of emergency management agencies in Oklahoma have small budgets," said Dale Morris, assistant director of OK-FIRST. "Until now, state and local government agencies have largely been neglected in the area of emergency weather information. For instance, I recently had a call from an emergency management coordinator in a small town whose only information source, in addition to the television, was a phone call to the National Weather Service in Tulsa. The OK-FIRST project will vastly improve the ability of these coordinators to protect the citizens in their areas."
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