National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather radios are an excellent method of receiving public notification of natural and manmade catastrophes.

Most weather radios use specific area message encoding technology. This coding system contains specific information for the affected local area and the expected duration of the emergency. It receives weather and public safety announcements, local forecasts, travel conditions, severe weather watches and warnings (for example, tornadoes and hurricanes).

Weather radios are usually quite compact, unobtrusive and can range in price from $20 to $150.  Several vendors manufacture reliable units.

If you already have an NOAA Weather Alert Radio FIRST ALERT (model # WX 67), you can program it by following these steps:

1. Press "Program."
2. Push either arrow button until the words "Select" and "Channel" are alternating in the display window.
3. Press "Enter."
4. Turn the knob on the side of the radio until "CH3" and "162.450" are alternating in the display window.
5. Press "Enter."
6. Press the red "Stop Alert Tone" button.