2009 Hurricane Specials

[JonathanBelles]

The 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season is just about here, and all of the news stations are posting and playing their 2009 Hurricane Specials preparing everyone for this hurricane season. I think it would be good if we all shared the information and discuss it as well.

Here is what I saw from the Channel 8 (NBC) and Channel 12 (CBS) stations here in Tampa Bay.

One thing we all have to realize this year is that we have numerous new hazards to worry about. There are many foreclosed and abandoned homes this year out there in this economy. Who is going to board and net these homes up? It is a very real possibility that if a hurricane hits the US this season that there will be an above average number of unprotected homes in our neighborhoods. These foreclosed and empty homes will blow away and take very large damage toll if a hurricane moves through. The same thing goes for unfinished homes. When the housing bubble went bust, may homes were in the mid-construction phase. This means there are unattached shingles, boards, doors, broken glass, nuts and bolts, and many loose hazards. These unfinished hazards will become very easily airborne missiles. What can we do about this? I don't know exactly. I suppose you can write the contractors, developers and owners to get the buildings finished, but this may be very hard to do. You could offer to help them finish the projects, but again, this would be difficult. If anyone has any ideas for these new hazards, please post them.

Another thing we have to worry about this year is the change to Digital on June 12th. This may leave many people without tv's, their weather radios, radios in general, and a lot of information that may held people survive and bring down the death/damage tolls. If you know anyone, it may be a good idea to help them make the transition to digital to help all of us. I hope to come up with enough spare money to get a new weather radio this year as my old one I used specifically for hurricanes will not work for this hurricane season. Also something that I had never heard of that was on these specials was that there are now batteries on the market today that change the signals coming into the radio into the digital signal, quite interesting I think.

This year we do have a couple new widely used tools for hurricanes. Twitter and Facebook are now widely used by news stations, Emergency managers, noaa, the TWC, and many other places and organizations that is available to all. This year you can also get all of that information on your phones, which is helpful in a power outage or in a shelter. It will be extremely easy to get your information out to the world as well as get information back. You may be trapped in your house, but this year you could tweet out a help message listing your address or location for all those to find you. I will be using tweets from all of the gulf and atlantic coasts to get quick observations this year.


Some of my worries for this year:
Tampa Bay is still not ready for a major hurricane, BUT they are more ready then they were last year. Many residents of the Tampa Bay Area are still complacent. Some emergency managers are using tweets this year to get quick information out. It is a fact that an Ike-like storm would put 75% of Pinellas County under water if it came through the county, and then take Tampa, Clearwater, and Sarasota, and probably cities to the south with it's water. PSTA, the bus service here, will be running for evacuations until winds reach 45mph (except coastal and high elevation routes). And as a first, they will allow pets if they are leashed or caged, which is a huge relief for many in the area. Finally we have a mass transit system to move people out of the area. Unfortunately, Pinellas county has very little area to stay at a shelter and be safe. Its one of the few areas that under a cat 3+ are unsafe to stay in a shelter in. There are only 5 major routes out of the county, which will put a huge squeeze into the evacuation of the nearly million people in the county. There is also a very large homeless population in the county, that wouldn't be informed about the storm, and wouldn't have a way out of town. I can foresee a much higher rate of death in the homeless community than in the middle/high classes of the society. The Tent City of St. Petersburg is a very good example of the Bay Area's homeless population. Because they are a 'city' they would probably get out of town via mass transport, but a majority of the homeless would not. Evacuation is by far the largest worry I have for the Bay area, and Florida in general. Evacuation is getting better, but it is a long way from efficient. I think that if you carpool, you could not only save the congestion on the roads, but you can save gas. The amount of gas we would save would keep gas in the stations so that we don't run into as much of a gas shortage. I don't think that the Pinellas/Hillsborough EOC's is as equipt for a hurricane as other counties are. A lot has been improved since Charley, but a lot of progress still has to be made in the area of tropical response. Tampa Bay has a much better grasp for the severe weather of the wet season, but it needs to expand its areas of hurricane response and proactivity.



One of the rules that people need to begin hearing and reacting to is 'The First 72 is up to you!", which means that in the first 3 days, there is a very good chance that if you hunkered down in your house, that you will not be saved. This means you must be prepared with AT LEAST 3 days worth of water, food, and supplies to keep you alive and self-sustaining until you can get power, water, food, and help from your community. (BTW this is not my phrase, it comes from Broward/Dade Counties)

When I see the other 3 channel (ABC, BN9, and FOX) specials, I will probably add things to the above. All of the above are my thoughts, feel free to add things to my list, your channels, your areas ( I very much hope not to make this a Tampa Bay thread). Also feel free to negotiate, and add positive or negative feedback about the above. I look forward to seeing your thoughts.