UNMC earns National Weather Service StormReady designation

OMAHA — The University of Nebraska Medical Center's campus near 42nd and Emile streets has been recognized by the National Weather Service as StormReady, a designation for organizations that plan ahead for dangerous weather, the university said Nov. 10 in a newsroom post.

The program looks for set emergency procedures, dependable ways to receive and send warnings, and ongoing preparedness training, according to UNMC. University leaders credited UNMC Emergency Management, its police and public safety unit and other campus departments. A key piece is UNMC Alert, the campus emergency notification system run by Emergency Management; UNMC Dispatch sends those messages and notifies the campus Incident Command Team when needed.

Chris Franks, a warning coordination meteorologist at the weather service's Omaha office in Valley, said in the release, “This commitment to preparedness helps build a safer, more resilient campus.” Diane Mack, UNMC's emergency management director, asked people on campus to make sure their contact information in UNMC Alert is up to date.

The release did not say when the designation was awarded or how long it lasts.

Source: UNMC Newsroom: UNMC Earns StormReady Designation.

How we checked this: Reported from UNMC's newsroom post "UNMC Earns StormReady Designation," opened Nov. 10, 2026, at 5:22 a.m. CT, and checked against the record by our copy desk before publishing.