Fire Department, Library Sponsor Seasonal Weather Preparedness Series

EVANSTON, IL — City officials plan to hold a series of seminars starting next week to help residents better prepare for extreme weather and other seasonal emergencies.

Each of the first four seminars planned this year will focus on season-specific hazards, starting with an event concentrating on spring hazards like floods, tornadoes and power outages.

Speakers at the first event, scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. April 21 at Room 107 of the Evanston Public Library's main branch, are set to include Evanston Fire Department Division Chief Kimberly Kull, Sustainability and Resilience Coordinator Cara Pratt and American Red Cross Duty Officer Brian Nestler.

"This is informational, generalized awareness of: hazards in general, what to expect specific to Evanston, how to respond, what the city's doing in terms of trying to mitigate, as much as we can, the threat," Kull said.

Seminar series co-sponsors, the Evanston Fire Department and the Evanston Public Library, aim to improve community resilience, raise awareness of climate-related weather events and give people the tools needed to reduce risks and stay safe in emergencies.

"Basically, how can the city and its constituents prepare for managing that event when it does occur?," Kull said. "We can't control the weather but what we can do is [control] how we can respond and prepare for events like this."

All meetings are free to attend and will be recorded, with videos later posted online on the library's YouTube channel. People interested in attending in person or remotely can register online.

The summer hazard seminar is scheduled for May 12 at the main library in English and May 19 at the Robert Crown branch library in Spanish.

The fall hazard seminar is scheduled for Aug. 18 and the winter hazards seminar is planned for Oct. 13. Kull said another seminar focusing on financial preparedness is planned for early next year.