DENTON, Texas – People living in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas are urged to get ready now for potential severe weather that could strike over the next few days in the form of possible severe thunderstorms, hail, strong winds, flash flooding, tornadoes and wildfires.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Region 6 office continues to monitor the situation and stands ready to support state and local partners as needed and requested in any affected areas.

“We encourage people to keep listening to their local and state officials for updated instructions and information. The safety of people is the first priority,” said FEMA Region 6 Administrator Tony Robinson. “We encourage people to have an individual or family emergency plan in place, practice that plan and put together an emergency kit.”

If you have severe weather in your area, you will likely want to become familiar with the terms used to identify a severe weather hazard including:

• Watch: Meteorologists are monitoring an area or region for the formation of a specific type of threat (e.g. flooding, severe thunderstorms, or tornadoes); and
• Warning: Specific life and property threatening conditions are occurring and imminent. Take appropriate safety precautions.

More tools and resources are available online to help you prepare for, respond to and recover from any type of disaster. Visit www.Ready.gov or the Spanish language site www.Listo.gov.

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FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/femaregion6 and the FEMA Blog at http://blog.fema.gov.