#15,232
Today marks the beginning of 2020's National Hurricane Preparedness week, and while we always hope for a quiet season, the early forecasts (see Colorado State University, Pennsylvania State University ESSC, Tropical Storm Risk center) are all calling for an above average year.
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| 2017 - Three Major Hurricane Disasters In Just Over 30 Days |
In 2017 (see above), it was one major hit after another (Harvey, Irma, and Maria), while the following season Hurricane Michael became only the 4th Category 5 storm on record to hit the continental United States, and Hurricane Florence battered the Carolinas.
Last year (2019) was the 4th above average season in a row, and saw 18 named storms - two of which were CAT 5 - including Dorian which threatened South Florida but veered away - but not before it ravaged the Bahamas with 180 kt winds.
While it is impossible to know how many major (Cat 3+) storms will impact populated areas, or where those landfalls might occur - the huge build up of coastal development during the relatively quiescent 1970s & 1980s now provides a target rich environment.
NOAA makes a Historical Hurricane Track tool available which allows you to input any location, and it will provide a list (and the tracks) of hurricanes that have affected that area. It is worth tinkering with, even if you don't live on or near the Gulf of Atlantic coasts.
Hurricanes - or their still dangerous remnants - can still cause severe weather and major flooding, hundreds of miles inland. As an experiment, I entered Memphis, TN into the program (passing within 25 miles), and got the following result:
While none were still hurricanes by they time they reached Memphis, you can see how deeply hurricane and/or tropical storm impacts can carry into the center of the country.
Perhaps the most infamous example came in 1972, when a lackluster Cat 1 Hurricane Agnes made landfall in the Florida Panhandle, then meandered north as a tropical depression, dropping massive rains across Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York a week later.
Of the 122 deaths associated with this storm, only 9 occurred in Florida where Agnes made landfall. The rest - 113 deaths - were due to inland freshwater flooding, with New York and Pennsylvania suffering the highest loses.
Odds are, no one sitting at home in New York state or Pennsylvania on the night of June 19th, 1972 gave much thought to a marginal hurricane that was making landfall more than a thousand miles to their south.Hurricane Agnes, 48 years ago, was coincidentally my first hurricane as an (18 y.o.) Red Cross volunteer - which I wrote about in 2009's Creating A Culture Of Preparedness - and the experience led to me becoming an EMT, and then two years later a paramedic.
The point of all of this is, you don't have to live in a traditional hurricane prone region to be impacted by a hurricane. Obviously, if you live on a barrier island, you are at the greatest risk, but even those living hundreds of miles inland need to be prepared.In addition to our pandemic coverage, all this week we'll be taking a look at Hurricane and disaster preparedness as well. With the start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season less than a month away, now is the time to be making plans on how you will deal with a natural disaster in the midst of a pandemic.
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