NATCHEZ — Adams County has been named one of Mississippi’s 28 StormReady communities by the National Weather Service.

At Monday’s board of supervisors meeting, Emergency Management Director Stan Owens and other volunteers were recognized by the weather service.

“It’s really a designation that the weather service does for communities that have strengthened their ability to receive severe weather warnings and to get those messages out to the general public,” Owens said.

Owens said approximately a year ago, he, his staff and the sheriff’s office began committing spare time to focus on gaining the distinction of being StormReady.

“What we did in Adams County, thanks to (former sheriff) Ronny Brown, was we were able to use his dispatch and get the warnings out,” Owens said. “It makes us where we can do our job better and we are able to protect the community — that’s what it’s about.”

At Monday’s meeting, Steve Wilkinson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, presented Owens and his coworkers with a StormReady sign to display.

But StormReady status is not the only news the emergency management team has received in recent weeks.

Owens said his department has recently received approval for a hazardous mitigation grant that will bring four new weather sirens into the county.

The mitigation grants are funded federally through funds put aside to help states following Hurricane Katrina.

Owens said getting approved for the grant and obtaining four sirens is impressive due to the number of requests for sirens the state gets each year.

“Due to the enormous request across the state, everybody got cut back a little bit,” Owens said. “But we’re able to get four for the price of one.”

Owens said he originally requested sirens be placed near Broadmoor, Foster Mound, Kingston and Cloverdale areas, but Cloverdale was denied.

Now, Owens hopes to see a siren installed near Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

“I asked to change it to a more populated area,” Owens said. “I’m just waiting any minute to get that approved.”

Owens said this grant goes hand-in-hand with the board of sSupervisors’ plan to put up at least one siren a year until the county is sufficiently covered.

The county and the emergency management team are also working on finding a place to build.

“We’re having informal talks to secure an building area that falls within the guidelines of FEMA 361

“The storm shelter will have to be the county’s property in some type of fashion.”