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Hurricane
Preparedness Home Page
Quick Jump Index For This Page
June
3, 2009 Update
May 9, 2009 Update
July 2008 Update
2009 Hurricane
Season Predictions
My Extensive
Hurricane Preparedness Checklists
Useful Links
About The Author
June 3, 2009
Today, I had the
opportunity to attend the ImpactWeather 20th Annual Hurricane
Seminar for Business and Industry. There were several
fascinating speakers who shared a wealth of information about
storms past, and the outlook for 2009.
Chris Hebert, Lead
Hurricane Forecaster for ImpactWeather had thirty minutes of
really useful information. This included data about
some of the storms that have hit Houston in the past, including
Hurricane Ike in 2008.
Also in attendance was Dr.
Phil Klotzbach, associate of Dr. William Gray, who is renowned
for his hurricane predictions. Dr. Klotzbach concluded his
talk by noting that he and Dr. Gray have lowered their forecast
for 2009 "based on a cooler-than-normal tropical Atlantic
and the greater potential for a weak El Nino during the bulk of
the hurricane season." The new numbers reflect 11
named storms (down from 12), five hurricanes (down from six),
and unchanged is the prediction for two major hurricanes
(category three or greater).
If you have the
opportunity to attend this seminar in the future, I highly
recommend it!
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May, 2009
As I write this, I'm
amazed at what has transpired since last year's update.
Indeed, 2008 was the year Houston finally got "the big
one" in the form of Hurricane Ike. It was what the
meteorologists had been warning us about for decades! Of
course, the big challenge now is to keep everyone from becoming
complacent and thinking that we probably won't see another
hurricane in Houston for another 20+ years. Indeed, having
another storm hit us this year would be considered a statistical
long shot. But keep in mind that Mine That Bird--a 50 to 1
long shot--just won the Kentucky derby! So though I hope
we've seen the last Houston hurricane for a very long time,
there's no guarantee that we won't experience another big storm
this year.
It was interesting to note
that in the two days before Ike hit, this web site received
roughly 30,000 hits from folks seeking hurricane preparedness
information. Though I'm glad they visited this site for
information, I find it alarming that so many folks wait until
the last minute before making preparations. You can save
yourself a lot of time, money and anxiety by making a list and
beginning your 2009 preparations today!
I hope you find the
information on this web site useful. If you have any
specific questions or comments, please drop me a line at
HurricaneHaskell@gmail.com.
For now, best wishes for quiet tropics and no
hurricanes. But as I keep saying: Hope for the best,
plan for the worst!
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July, 2008
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 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!
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2009
Hurricane Season Predictions
Remember,
it only takes one storm to make
it an active hurricane season for you!
The
peak of hurricane season (for the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean
Sea, and the
Gulf of Mexico) is from mid-August to late October
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My Extensive
Hurricane Preparedness Checklists
I think you will find this
comprehensive spreadsheet useful for almost every aspect of your
hurricane preparedness. It not only covers food and
supplies, but also has several checklist that covers everything
from home preparations to evacuation supplies.
Remember, you will need to customize this list for your
particular needs.
Click
here for the Hurricane
Checklist - Excel Format
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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
Fox
26 Hurricane Briefings
Fox
26 Story on Portable Digital TV Options
Amateur (HAM) Radio
Harris
County Amateur (HAM) Radio Emergency Service
Fox
News Houston - Segment on Ham Radio Operators
Miscellaneous
Houston
Humane Society
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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 after witnessing the devastation from
Hurricane Katrina, 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 accounts 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!
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amateur ham radio, Haskell Moore, W5HLM.
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