Women of Atmore were given another chance to learn how to defend themselves against potential attackers as Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith held his second self defense class in as many weeks Wednesday at Atmore Community Hospital.

Smith was on hand last week teaching ACH employees, but this go around, he taught senior ladies some simple procedures that could save their lives. He also distributed police whistles to each lady attending the meeting to use as an alarm should they ever be attacked. In addition, he gave them ultraviolet pens to write their driver’s license number on their belongings and on the other end of the pen is a light for reading what has been written.

“Just remember, you all have cell phones these days, and that is one weapon you can use.” Smith said. “Dial 9-1-1 on your phone, but don’t push the send button until you decide that you need help. If you don’t have a cell phone, get an old one, and put batteries in. You don’t have to have a phone contract to use it that way.”

Atmore Community Hospital’s Women’s Auxiliary sponsored the program, which was aimed at getting information to ladies to let them know that they are far from being helpless in a terrible situation.

As part of this program, one victim was on hand to tell her story of how she used her head and followed some simple rules to keep from being killed.

Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sheryl Vickery stood before the group of ladies and told her story for the first time before an audience.

“I had a plan,” she said. “I didn’t think about it every day, but it was in the back of my mind all the time. I also wanted to let you ladies know that you are not a victim if you remember the right things to do. One is to have a plan of what to do in this situation, and secondly, never, ever go with your attacker to a second location. Chances are that you will be killed at that second location. Stay low to the ground and go limp. Chances are pretty good he will not be able to lift you off the ground.”

For more on this story, see Saturday’s Atmore Advance.

Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith demonstrates a self defense move Wednesday afternoon at Atmore Community Hospital.| Phot by Lydia Grimes

David Adams knows it only takes one storm to leave a town devastated. Tropical Storm Alex appears to be headed for Mexico or Texas, but Adams said, storm watchers and weather officials are keeping a close eye on the approaching storm.

“All of the models for this storm show it going in somewhere around northeast Mexico or southeast Texas,” Adams said. “It is still a ways out in the Gulf, so we’re just monitoring the situation at this point. Right now, our area isn’t even in the perimeters of any danger from this storm.”

The National Hurricane Center predictions show the track of the storm’s center moving west toward the coast of Texas and Mexico with expected landfall during midday Thursday.

Although the storm doesn’t appear to be a threat to our general area, Adams said being prepared is more than just a good idea.

“We are in storm season now,” Adams said. “This is the first one and it looks like we won’t be in any danger this time, but the next one could be ours. The time to prepare for the next one is now. Being prepared in the event of a serious storm coming in is one sure way to ensure survival.”

Survival can be shaky if storms with the fury of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ivan or Hurricane Camille were to make it into the Gulf Coast, Adams said.

“We want people to be vigilant and be prepared for any storm,” Adams said. “It’s important to know that you never know what a storm will do when it’s in the warm waters of the Gulf.”

Even though Alex hasn’t quite gotten to hurricane strength, Adams said a lot could change in a relatively short amount of time.

“The nature of a storm can change quickly as it develops and moves,” Adams said. “We never discount the strength or movement of a storm until it makes it onto shore. We will certainly watch this one just like we’ll watch the next one and the one after that.”

Although high winds aren’t probable for the area, large amounts of rainfall are likely according to weather forecasts from the National Weather Service. Forecasts show a 60 percent chance of rain for today and Thursday with a 50 percent chance of rain on Friday.

For more detailed information on Tropical Storm Alex including updated forecasts and satellite images, visit the National Hurricane Center at www.nhc.noaa.gov.

Tropical Storm Alex was moving west towards Mexico and Texas. | File art

Meter readers will soon be a thing of the past for customers of Alabama Power Company.

Officials recently announced that the electricity provider would begin a complete overhaul of residential and commercial meter boxes next week.

Peggie Byrd, Atmore business office manager, said Monday that Alabama Power employees and contractors hired by the company will begin replacing all meter boxes serviced by the company and replacing them with new ones beginning July 6.

The meters will be converted to the newest in technology referred to as Advance Metering Infrastructure, which require digital meters that will be read monthly from a remote tower rather than the traditional meter reader.

“It’s already been completed in the Birmingham, Anniston, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and Dothan divisions,” Byrd said. “The Mobile division is the last area to make the transition to the new digital meters. The metro Mobile area will not start until September because they have more volume than the outlying areas such as Atmore.”

Byrd said plans are for workers with STS Contractors to be complete with the more than 7,000 meters in and around the Atmore area by Sept. 1 with a bulk of them being replaced within 30 days. She said payment due dates would determine when customers’ meters would be changed out.

“We have 21 billing cycles and the meters will be changed out in groups depending on the billing cycle,” she said.

Byrd added that contractors would make it known that they are performing the work.

“The contractors will knock at doors prior to changing out the meters to see if someone is at home as a courtesy to let them know that the meters are going to be changed out,” Byrd said. “They will then take a photo of the old meter for our records and then change it out.”

Currently meter readers are contractors hired by Alabama Power Company. According to the company’s Web site, the overhaul is being performed to help “reduce costs” and “increase customer satisfaction.” The site also states that over the next several years those costs to read meters will continue to increase due to the amount of meters that need to be read. AMI is also a way to ensure more accurate readings for customers, according to officials.

In the future, AMI will also allow Alabama Power to have the capability to be connected and disconnected remotely, according to officials.

Local APC office employees will provide support such as keys to meters and gates, maps and directions.

For more information visit Alabama Power Company’s Web site at www.alabamapower.com