Following last year’s most destructive hurricane season on record, government officials and emergency responders are imploring Floridians to be prepared should the state experience another nightmarish season marked by prolonged power outages, fuel shortages and potentially deadly storm surge.
With today’s start of the six-month Atlantic hurricane season, state and federal officials encourage residents to stock up on supplies to sustain them for several days without electricity, have evacuation plans in place if they live in a mandatory evacuation zone and ensure their homes are properly insured in the event of flooding or severe wind damage. Officials issued the stern warning May 13-18 at the 32nd annual Governor’s Hurricane Conference in West Palm Beach — the country’s largest tropical cyclone gathering attended by officials from more than 30 states and 12 foreign countries.
Weather experts from Colorado State University — regarded as the nation’s top hurricane forecasters — predict another active season with 14 named tropical storms, seven of them hurricanes.
The 2017 hurricane season produced 17 named storms of which 10 became hurricanes, including six major hurricanes and the first two major hurricanes to hit the continental U.S. in 12 years — Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which made its first landfall in the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm before passing east of Sarasota and Bradenton on Sept. 11 as a Category 1 storm. The 2017 season was the seventh-most active in history, causing more than $316 billion in damage.
National Hurricane Center meteorologists this season will continue to use storm surge watches and warnings, which were implemented for the first time last season, the center’s director Ken Graham said, adding that his team is working on creating a seven-day forecast as accurate as its current five-day forecast. Storm surge is the rapid rise of sea level as a result of atmospheric pressure changes and wind associated with a storm.
Graham credits the new watches and warnings with saving lives during the onslaught of major storms last season. There were no known fatalities from storm surge last season despite four hurricanes making landfall on U.S. shores, Graham said.
Residents who live in a hurricane surge zone should evacuate when a storm threatens, but others quick to hit the road should think twice, said Bill Johnson, director of Palm Beach County Emergency Management.
Hurricane Irma sparked the largest mass evacuation in U.S. history. More than 7 million people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were issued a mix of mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders as the Category 5 storm barreled toward Florida.
The evacuation inundated roads and hotels, used significant first responder resources and in some cases prevented fuel trucks from quickly reaching stations to restock the hot commodity.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long is encouraging U.S. residents to properly insure their homes ahead of the 2018 season.
“Insurance is the first line of defense, not FEMA,” said Long, who emphasized the importance of flood insurance.
— GateHouse News Service