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What You Need to Know about Hurricanes II - June 11, 2009 #198
Last week, we talked about the most important single thing you need to understand about hurricanes – that they are absolutely unpredictable. This week we will focus on what you need to do about that fact. I will tell you more if you will give me Just a Minute for Homeland Security.
I’m Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M
The predictions are out for this hurricane season, and experts say we can expect activity that is about normal. That means four to seven Atlantic storms could become hurricanes, including one to three major hurricanes of Category 3, 4 or 5. Of course this does not tell the whole story, since last years massively destructive Hurricane Ike was only Category 2 when it struck shore. Damage from rain and wind continued hundreds of miles inland.
And yet 66 percent of the people recently surveyed in hurricane states (like Texas) said they have no survival kit, and more than half said they have no plan for their families. In fact, the percentage of people prepared to take care of themselves for several days after a disaster has gone down, despite all the media coverage of damage from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike. Apparently the better the government gets at planning and coordinating hurricane response, the more people think they can wait until the last minute to prepare.
It is not as if preparing a simple kit were hard or expensive. At a minimum, you need water, food, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries, along with a first aid kit, any medicine you take, and the prescription information from the labels on the bottles. That’s for bare bones survival, but it will get you through a couple of days if you are surprised by a loss of power – as happened to millions of citizens last year far from the coast.
With a little more effort you can add copies of all your important papers: driver’s license, Social Security card, proof of residence, insurance policies, wills, deeds, birth and marriage certificates, tax records, and so forth. These papers would let you leave on short notice, yet file for assistance even before you return home. Some cash and credit cards would help bridge this gap as well.
Finally you can add comfort items, like snacks, bedding, and clothes, and containers to transfer it rapidly to the car. And of course, an updated list of phone numbers, with a plan for how to contact family on the move.
The one thing you can’t store for an emergency is time. You have to use that now – while you have it.
This is Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M, inviting you to join us again next week on Just a Minute . . . for Homeland Security.