Eutaw’s first weather cam on the way

EUTAW, Ala. (WBRC) - The town of Eutaw is about to install a new camera on its 300-foot water tower, and it’s not just any old camera, but one that could potentially save lives in the next storm.

Eutaw town leaders say they expect have it up and running in about 45 days and it’ll be positioned near the tank and pointed towards the southwest.

Eutaw is no stranger to damaging storms, whether it’s a tornado or straight-line winds.

“We’re working with Bob Baron, a personal inspiration of mine and a very experienced weatherman,” said Eutaw spokesman Corey Martin.

Baron is donating the camera. It’ll cost a little more than $5,000 to install. This town of around 3,000 received the $5,000 donation Monday morning from the TS Police Support League.

“It’s important to be aware of your surroundings. The weather knowledge we have, just the past 20 or 30 years is when we’ve gathered a lot of it, so anytime you get more information is going to help warnings in the future. If you can confirm what the radar says on the ground it makes warnings a little easier,” Martin said.

History tells Eutaw the storms in recent years have come from the southwest, the direction in which the camera will be pointed.

“That’s where most of our storms have come from... it’s been towards the south and southwest. Greene County is on the state line. We have that unique ability to grab storm information,” said Martin.

And that’s not all.

“We’ll have the ability to locally control it, move it around but everybody will be able to see it online,” said Martin.

The new weather cam is on the way, just in time before the spring storms fire up again.

Martin says as far as he knows Eutaw is only small town in the Black Belt to have this type of weather camera to be installed in about a month and half.

Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here.

Copyright 2023 WBRC. All rights reserved.