Welcome to another Weather Wednesday blog. This is the final installment to the blog series "Hurry! There's A Hurricane Coming!" Ironically enough, this last installment is about what to do when a hurricane is headed in your direction. Do you go outside and take pictures for social media or do you bunker in your home if you decide to ride the storm out? Can you do both...?
With that being said, today is Wednesday June 27, 2018 and we are about to learn what we should to to prepare for a hurricane.
In last week's blog, we found out that if the hurricane is category 3 or stronger, it is considered a major hurricane. If that strength of a storm is headed in your direction, you would be best either evacuating or based on your own judgement as well as your local meteorologists, stay at home to withstand the storm. Sometimes, depending on where the storm is headed specifically, you might be able to stay at home, but if your house or where you live is endanger of being flooded, it would be best to evacuate.
That "flows" right into my next point, flooding. When it comes to damage from a hurricane, a lot of people think it's the strong winds or heavy rains which cause the most damage when in fact that's not the case. What causes the most damage is the storm surge. Now what's a storm surge you ask?
A storm surge occurs when a hurricane moves over a body of water bringing the ocean waves/tides along with it onto the land. All this water coupled with the rain is what will cause flooding. According to Weather Underground, 2005's Hurricane Katrina produced a 27.8 feet storm surge, the highest ever recorded on the US coast. Just imagine that for one moment...27.8 feet, that's almost 30 feet of water just coming out of the ocean and just pouring into the streets of Louisiana.
Comparatively, 2017's Hurricane Harvey reported only over 12 feet in storm surge. Funny thing is, both storms tie each other as the two costliest storms racking up $125 billion dollars in damage. As you can tell, the storm surge is extremely dangerous, so one of the most important things you can do as a property owner so to make sure you have some flood insurance even if you're not located in a flood zone. That's number one on my list, get you some flood insurance.
Number two, start gathering supplies now before the storm comes. Items you should have include but are not limited too...
1) Packs of bottled water
2) Canned food/non-perishable food items (chips, cereal, bread, peanut butter, candy...anything that will keep you somewhat nourished for at least a few days)
3) Flashlights/Candles
4) Battery powered fans
5) Portable chargers for your phones/other devices
These five are what I deem important for myself & my family.
Number three would have to be getting your house ready. If you have stuff lying around outside such as lawn chairs or yard statues and you think they might be able to become airborne, your best best is to either bring them inside your home or store them away somewhere whether that be your garage or a storage unit. Now if you live by people who don't take this action, you either want to, a) voice your concern to them in hopes they will move their stuff or b) start covering up your windows with some storm shutters. My hope for you would be that option a is taken. Regardless though, it's always good to cover up your windows just in case something, such as a tree branch or a rock comes flying through your window.
Moving to number four, stay away from the water. Have you heard of the saying "turn around, don't drown?" Well if you haven't, now you have. Even though it might not be raining outside at a certain moment, you could potentially walk into an area which you thought was shallow but was in fact deep. Whenever you see pools of water, your best bet is to just turn the opposite direction even if you think, it's a shallow area. That photo for social media can wait. I guarantee if there's a large power outage in the area, no one will be on Facebook or Instagram posting storm photos.
Last but not least number five listen to your state officials/authorities and local meteorologists. If they tell you to evacuate, then evacuate. Don't try your luck. It is better to be safe than sorry. As a meteorologist, their main responsibility is convey the weather over to you so that you know what is going on and you're able to stay safe throughout your day. If you happen to leave and turns out nothing major happened, it's a win win for you and your property. Definitely heed those warnings and take them seriously.
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| This dog may look miserable, but at least it's somewhat protected from the rain...if it was raining. |
There you have it though. When it comes to hurricane preparedness, those are my five tips for all of you who live along the coastal parts of the United States. If you want to obtain a more in depth reading, please direct yourself over to this site here.
As always, thank you for all the support and I hope through these past three blogs, you were able to pick up a little something you didn't know before about hurricanes.
Have a wonderful rest of your week & I'll see y'all here next time for another Weather Wednesday.
Your Future Meteorologist,
Aric Ilbeig
"We may not be able to change the world, but we can change somebody's world for a moment" -Unknown
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