GULFPORT -- Emergency managers say their advice to residents about this hurricane season is the same as it has been every year: plan, prepare and review.
Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 20. So people who live in coastal areas need to decide now whether they will stay in their homes or at a shelter or if they will evacuate. If they evacuate, they need to decide how far in advance they will leave and where they will go.
Once those decisions are made, people need to stock their hurricane kits, take steps to protect their homes and gather all their important documents. If possible, scan these documents and put them on a disk.
Even if you’ve made a plan in years past, review it to see if any changes need to be made, officials advised. Some evacuation and/or storm surge zones may have changed since Hurricane Katrina. Evacuation routes also may have changed.
“Have a plan,” said Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Find out what your threat level is. If you’re in a storm surge zone, then evacuate. If not, get prepared for the storm.” Rupert Lacy, emergency management director in Harrison County, said residents need to know what storm and evacuation zones they live in because the two are different.
“By the time the storm is 48 hours out, you better have made the plans you’re going to make,” he said. “You have to run from the water and protect yourself from the wind.”
Read agreed.
“Along the Gulf Coast, it’s easier for water to push onshore and penetrate inland,” he said. “If you know you’re in a surge zone, leave when local officials tell you to.”
William Grey, a forecaster with Colorado State University, has predicted an average season this year with 12 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes. The National Hurricane Center also has predicted between nine and 14 named storms. Officials said between four and seven of those could be hurricanes with one to three becoming major hurricanes. But Read pointed out that the only storm residents have to be prepared for is the one that hits them. He reminds coastal residents that in 1992 there were only six storms, and the first one hit in August, but it happened to be Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 that hit south Florida.
Also, people shouldn’t take a storm for granted just because it’s a weak Category 1 or 2 or a tropical storm. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped more than 30 inches of rain on Houston.
Most people focus on the wind speed of the storm; however, weather experts said wind speed has nothing to do with the amount of rainfall a storm will produce or the storm surge.
Mike Womack, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said the state is better prepared than ever for storm season.
D’Iberville High and West Harrison Central High both are new and have been built to withstand hurricane force winds. Each can hold 3,000 evacuees. By next year, he said, there will be new shelters in the six lower counties.
Still, he advised residents evacuating to head north, not east or west.
“Don’t guess where the storm’s going to go,” Womack said. “Don’t leave New Orleans and go to Pensacola. It doesn’t make sense. If a storm is in the Gulf of Mexico, we don’t know where it’s going.”
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