Hurricane Preparedness Home Page

If you live along one of the areas prone to hurricanes, then hopefully you've taken some time to make preparations in case a storm heads in your direction.  Whether you're a seasoned coastal veteran, or just getting started for the first time, the material on this web site should help you with your hurricane (and general emergency) preparedness.

As I am creating this page, Brownsville, Texas is getting pounded by Hurricane Dolly.  If you live anywhere along the Gulf Coast, you are susceptible to winds, rain, and possibly the storm surge from a hurricane.  Yet I'm amazed that many in the potential strike zone of a hurricane never bother to make preparations until the last minute.  

Of all the dangerous things that person can do is procrastinate their hurricane preparations.  If you don't believe you can get killed trying to obtain gasoline, withdraw cash from an ATM, or buy the last loaf of bread in a store right before a storm, then you should have witnessed the madness in Harris County before Hurricane Rita.  Though most of the residents were orderly, law abiding citizens, there were numerous reports of hot tempers and desperate actions all across the area.  By having your supplies ahead of time and keeping your vehicle's gas tank at least half full, you can greatly reduce your stress and chance of running into danger before the storm even arrives.

In the Upper Texas Gulf Coast region, we've become accustomed to having a week or more of warning before a hurricane makes landfall.  But roughly 75% of the storms that hit the Upper Texas Gulf Coast form in the Gulf of Mexico, and often arrive with as little as two days warning.  

For years, the meteorologist have been saying that Houston is long overdue for a hurricane.  Statistically, we're long overdue!  However, the Dr. Gray's predictions and those of the National Hurricane Center offer nothing more than a general predictor of the chance for a storm in a given year.  For example, 2006--the year after the deadly Hurricane Katrina--was predicted to be another highly active season.  Yet due to an strong El Nino phenomenon, the season saw little activity.  Back in 1983, it was one of the quietest storm seasons on record, with only four hurricanes.  But one of those storms was Hurricane Alicia, an early-season hurricane that did over $5 billion (in 2006 dollars) of damage to Harris County, Texas.  

So will 2008 be another slow season, or is will this be the year that we get "the big one?"  Without a better crystal ball, it's anyone's guess.  So you might want to follow the first rule of emergency preparedness: Hope for the best and plan for the worst!

The peak of hurricane season (for the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico) is from mid-August to late October

University of Colorado 2008 Hurricane Predictions

Useful Links

Hurricane & Weather

National Weather Service - Houston

Nation Hurricane Center

Harris County Office of Emergency Management

Harris County Office of Emergency Management - Evacuation Information

Weather Radio SAME Codes

Mike's Weather Page - Tons of Useful Links

Media

Eric Berger's Hurricane Blog - Houston Chronicle

Harvard School of Public Health - 2007 Article on Hurricane Preparedness

KPRC Channel 2 - Evacuation Story

Amateur (HAM) Radio

Harris County Amateur (HAM) Radio Emergency Service

Fox News Houston - Segment on Ham Radio Operators

About the Author

My name is Haskell Moore, and this is the part of the web page where I'm supposed to impress you with all of my impressive credentials.  Unfortunately, I have none.  I'm just a guy who got concerned about his own hurricane preparedness a few years ago, and starting reading everything I could on the subject.  

As I began talking to my friends and co-workers about their hurricane preparedness plans, I soon realized that most of them were going to end up in big trouble should we have a major storm hit the area.  So I started sharing my knowledge about the subject in a series of lunch and learn sessions at the office.  To date, I've had several hundred people attend these classes, and the response has been extremely positive.  I try to keep the sessions light, fast moving and somewhat entertaining--much like me in real life.

In 2005, I was featured on a KHOU hour-long television special on hurricane awareness.  I use the term "featured" loosely, since I had about 14 seconds of air time in the hour-long show.  I think I got the part because I have a beautiful wife and a cute dog.  Both of them got about seven times the exposure I did.

My sincere hope for you is that you take a few minutes and read over this material (and the related links), then start making some emergency preparedness plans of your own.  You only need to do a Google search on Hurricane Katrina to read some of the horrific stories of what happened when an entire city was caught totally unprepared and society broke down completely during one of the worst natural disasters that has ever hit this nation.  Then, you need to stop living in denial,  get off your backside, and start stashing some food, water and supplies in case one of these monsters blows into your area!

Keywords: Emergency Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparedness for Houston, Harris County, Texas; Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida, generator, generators, lights, flashlights, pets, food, water, supplies, home, residence, evacuation information, Plylox, amateur ham radio, Haskell Moore, W5HLM.