Last spring, Logan County Emergency Management Director Helen Norris was helping to lead a local Weather Spotter training seminar on a seemingly normal day, March 14, 2024, one of the many ways she lives out her dedication to keeping community residents safe and prepared for inclement weather.
Also ironically while at the training, she began to notice on a weather app on her cell phone that the radar was tracking a dangerous storm with Logan County in its path. She quickly alerted presenters from the National Weather Service who were on hand for the training and the session was ended early.
The National Weather Service soon issued a tornado warning for Logan County and the surrounding area, and the deadly EF3 tornado devastated the county that evening after striking the Indian Lake area.
This week, Norris was recognized by the National Weather Service’s Excellence Award for her passionate and thorough efforts locally for Logan County to become StormSafe certified, and then collaborating with other counties in Ohio to help them become StormReady certified as well.
Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 4, the National Weather Service’s Wilmington Forecast Office lead the ceremony at Logan County Job and Family Services, with a number of county officials, city of Bellefontaine officials, Ohio EMA representatives and Norris’ family attending to extend their appreciation and lend their support as well.
“I wanted to recognize Helen before I retire in two weeks,” said Tom Johnstone, Wilmington’s meteorologist in charge. “It was a devastating year for Logan County last year. I wanted everyone to know what a difference she made in preparing Logan County.
“Ohio has the most stringent levels of preparedness and it made a difference. Helen holds people to those standards.”
Meteorologist Andy Hatzos emphasized how important building relationships with community partners are to the National Weather Service’s mission. He related that it gives personal insights for all of the Wilmington office’s coverage area, where six million people reside.
“We want to be as accurate as possible and give people as much leeway as we can when issuing these warnings. We rely on the teamwork within our office and with our external partners, like Helen,” he said.
“We can’t stop the weather, but we can use science and these partnerships to keep people safe.”
Warning Coordinator Meteorologist Brandon Peloquin echoed similar statements regarding the importance of emergency preparedness plans.
“Preparedness does save lives,” he said. “Helen, you have helped so many Ohio counties to be prepared for hazardous weather. I have no doubt that Logan County fared well last March because of your efforts.”
Officials from the Ohio EMA also lauded the Logan County EMA director for her work statewide.
“Thank you from the state of Ohio. We appreciate all that you’ve done and the way that you’ve moved the preparedness needle in the correct way.”
Logan County Commissioner Mike Yoder also spoke on behalf of the commissioners, thanking Norris for her dedication and also noting the way that the community came together to help those affected by the tornado last March.
Norris said when her friends at the National Weather Service approached her about the award, she told them, “I’m just doing my job.”
She began her role at the Logan County EMA on Aug. 6, 2001, not long before 9/11. While everything with emergency preparedness changed after that date, she found out that Logan County was not StormReady certified, and she went to site visits around the state to learn more about the process.
“It took 10 years for us to get everything in place to where we were ready to apply to be Storm Ready,” she said of the detailed process.