As part of its ongoing effort to ensure people in Macon-Bibb County have multiple ways to get severe weather alerts, the Emergency Management Agency (EMA) gave away 1,000 NOAA weather radios and pillow shaker/strobe lights at its distribution event on Thursday, April 10.

“Our goal was to get as many of these as possible into people’s homes ahead of any storms because they are the quickest and most effective way to get people accurate information in an emergency,” says EMA Director Spencer Hawkins.

The last distribution event was held in mid-March, and during the course of about three hours, 870 weather radios and 160 pillow shakers were given out. The weather radios were purchased for Macon-Bibb County residents through grant funding. There are no more radios at this time, but EMA is working to get more.

People can sign up for MBCAlert by going to www.maconbibb.us/mbcalert or getting the free mobile app, and people are encouraged to follow the Agency on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Hawkins also wants to stress to people that follow local media and weather forecasters on their social media channels to make sure they get as much information as possible about emergencies and severe weather.