Gordon McCraw was recently recognized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) during their Weather Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador Recognition Campaign.
The Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador™ initiative is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) effort to formally recognize NOAA partners who are improving the nation’s readiness, responsiveness, and overall resilience against extreme weather, water, and climate events.
As a WRN Ambassador, partners commit to working with NOAA and other Ambassadors to strengthen national resilience against extreme weather. In effect, the WRN Ambassador initiative helps unify the efforts across government, non-profits, academia, and private industry toward making the nation more ready, responsive, and resilient against extreme environmental hazards. Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) is a strategic outcome where society’s response should be equal to the risk from all extreme weather, water, and climate hazards.
Gordon was specifically recognized for being a great partner who promotes weather and tsunami preparedness throughout the community. They further commented about his ability to let the community know about significant weather events through his large email distribution and the live reports on local radio stations before and during these events that keeps the community further informed.
Gordon, who was a meteorologist in the Navy before retiring, moved from New Orleans where he was a policeman, to Tillamook after Hurricane Katrina, working at the Sheriff’s Office, then became the Tillamook County Emergency Management Director. Gordon said, “This is a surprise and an honor. It helps that we have a tremendous working relationship with an outstanding group of forecasters at the National Weather Service Office in Portland.”
There were only 38 Ambassadors recognized nationwide. An interactive map can be found at: https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=38d9ed51a5e14a4b9c32342ea3da06dd Gordon is number 28 on the map.