Severe Weather Awareness week March 19-25. Local emergency management agencies are reaching out to promote preparedness actions in their communities. More information about preparedness actions residents can take are available on emergency management agency websites and social media listed in the press release.

Three quick and easy actions residents can take to ensure they are prepared are to:

1. Stay informed: Have multiple ways to receive alerts. As a reminder, outdoor warning sirens are meant to alert people in open outside areas and should not be relied upon to provide sufficient warning indoors or in noisy areas.

2. Build a kit: Build an emergency preparedness kit with disaster items like water, nonperishable food and a flashlight.

3. Make a plan: Discuss and document what your family would do during a disaster including how you would communicate and where you would go.

The state of Ohio is conducting a statewide tornado drill on Wednesday, March 22 at 9:50 a.m. However, as multiple counties test their outdoor warning sirens on a different schedule, several counties will not activate their outdoor warning sirens during this drill to avoid confusion.

Counties not activating their outdoor warning sirens include: Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, Highland and Warren.

Counties activating their outdoor warning sirens include: Brown and Clinton.

For more information and points of contact for each county, see below:

Highland County

Contact: Highland County Emergency Management Agency at 937-393-5880.

Facebook: Highland County, Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

Website: www.highlandcountyema.com.

Emergency alerts: Hyper-Reach, call or text “alert” to 937-500-0648 or complete the form at https://bit.ly/HighlandAlerts.

Submitted by David Bushelman, director, Highland County EMA.