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Governor David A. Paterson has proclaimed the week of April 27 - May 3, 2008 as Severe Weather Awareness Week in New York State. In addition, the 20th annual Statewide Hazardous Weather Drill will be held during the week to test the NOAA, National Weather Service's warning communications systems. The Weather Service will be working in partnership with several agencies of the New York State Disaster Preparedness Commission and the New York State Broadcasters Association to inform residents of the potential dangers associated with flash flooding, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms. We will also recommend ways New Yorkers can protect themselves and their families from those hazards. These safety tips will be issued as Public Interest Statements throughout the week. All media outlets are being urged to disseminate these important messages to their readers, viewers, and listeners.

Communications capabilities for warning dissemination will be tested across the Empire State during the Hazardous Weather Drills scheduled for April 29th at 11:30 AM and May 1st at 1:15 PM. These capabilities include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Weather Radio (NWR), NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS) the emergency management community's National Warning System (NAWAS), and the New York Statewide Police Information Network (NYSPIN). NAWAS and NYSPIN are New York's official emergency management information communication systems for state agencies and local officials. Also, volunteer broadcasters will use this opportunity to test the Emergency Alert System (EAS).

Internally, the communications drills will give National Weather Service staffs the opportunity to practice skills usually applied under stress. Externally, the statewide drill gives public safety and preparedness officials, the broadcast media, and all New Yorkers the opportunity to test their planned methods of receiving emergency weather messages. Recipients of the test warning messages such as schools, hospitals, nursing homes, businesses, and individuals can use this opportunity to see if they are prepared to deal effectively with sudden, dangerous weather situations. Practicing our response to hazardous weather or flood threats can pay big dividends when actual disasters occur.

In case hazardous weather actually threatens on the scheduled drill days of Tuesday, April 29th and Thursday, May 1st, the drill for that day will be postponed until the same day the following week.

When one looks back at the record, it's easy to see that New York is not immune to hazardous weather. On September 6-7, 1998, strong wind gusts associated with a line of severe thunderstorms, known as a "Derecho", left a path of destruction from the Niagara Frontier to Long Island. This "Labor Day Storm" killed two people at the New York State Fair in Syracuse. A similar storm occurred during the early morning hours of July 15, 1995, affecting the north country from Watertown to the Adirondacks. The storm killed five people, injured at least fifty others, destroyed or damaged several homes, disrupted water and communications, knocked out power for days, and flattened thousands of trees.

On September 3, 1993, a tornado struck Batavia, killing two people and causing $300,000 damages along a 4 mile long path.

Flash flooding due to thunderstorms killed two people in the Genesee County community of Attica on July 8, 1998. Over six inches of rain sent the Tonawanda Creek raging out of its banks, washing out roads, flooding basements and businesses, and forcing the evacuation of over 100 people. Just 12 days earlier, on June 26^th, heavy rainfall from thunderstorms resulted in flash flooding along the Cattaraugus Creek from Arcade in Wyoming County to Sunset Bay by the Lake Erie shore. Both events resulted in Federal Disaster Declarations.