Emergency preparedness - place for everything

Hurricane preparedness and false sense of security

As my favorite first grade teacher use to say “There is a time and place for everything.” You might be wise to gamble on the price of that new camera when involved in an eBay auction and save $30.00. That is one thing, but gambling on your life and that of loved ones is something altogether different.

We have been lulled into a false sense of security over the past two years since we have not had active and / or intense hurricane seasons. This year is different. Even a 1% risk is too much when it is simple enough with a bit of effort to prepare low cost emergency survival kits for each member of your family as well as emergency preparedness plans for family an pets.

False security is just that FALSE! So tonight after you have helped with homework and bedtime stories take an hour and go over your emergency preparedness checklist and review your emergency preparedness kits. Get solid disaster preparedness information with a hurricane reference guide. Know of at least 3 places outside your potential hurricane impact zone where you can ride out the wind and rain in safety. Don’t gamble on your loved ones safety. Your actions tonight is the best gift of love and care you can give your family during any season of the year. Remember they are counting on YOU – please don’t let them down!

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Be Safe – Be Prepared – Help Others!

Terrie

Don’t obsess over the skinny black line

By Bob King | Monday, September 1, 2008, 06:34 PM

Floridians still need to keep a wary eye on Hanna, despite those hurricane center track forecasts that are predicting a landfall in Georgia or South Carolina sometime Friday. As the NHC meteorologists have said again and again and again, they produce that error cone for a reason. And in this case, it wouldn’t take much to make this storm veer from the predicted path.

Tonight’s 5 p.m. discussion amplifies those points: For now, Hanna appears to be moving south-southwest, and after that its “motion during the next couple of days is expected to be slow and possibly erratic” before it’s expected to zoom off to the northwest.

The upshot: “UNTIL HANNA TAKES A MORE DEFINITIVE MOTION … IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO BE MORE SPECIFIC ABOUT THE POTENTIAL THREAT AREA.”

Meanwhile, this lesser-known wind probabilities’ map from the hurricane center shows that much of South Florida has some chance of getting hurricane-force winds from Hanna regardless of where the eye goes (click on it to enlarge):

How much of a chance? According to the hurricane center, West Palm Beach has a 6 percent chance of feeling hurricane-force winds by Saturday, and a 40 percent chance of getting tropical storm-force winds. (In Fort Pierce, those odds are 7 percent and 43 percent, respectively.)

Is 6 percent enough to worry about? I posed that question at the National Hurricane Conference a few years ago when this wind-probability map was unveiled. The meteorologists’ answer: Even a small chance of something that could change your life is worth paying attention to.