StormReady Community

The City of Cedar Park is recognized as a StormReady Community by the National Weather Service. StormReady uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of extreme weather—from tornadoes to winter storms. The program encourages communities to take a new, proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations by providing emergency managers with clear-cut guidelines on how to improve their hazardous weather operations. To be officially StormReady, a community must:

• Establish a 24-hour warning point and Emergency Operations Center
• Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public
• Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally
• Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars
• Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.

Williamson County Amateur Radio Emergency Service

Williamson County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (WC-ARES) consists of licensed amateur radio operators who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. WC-ARES provides emergency communication support and SKYWARN Storm Spotting services for local EOCs, hospitals, and non-government organizations. The City of Cedar Park Emergency Operations Center (EOC) maintains the ability to monitor and communicate with WC-ARES operators when activated.