2008 Atlantic Hurricane Activity Forecast

The University of Colorado has released its 2008 hurricane activity forecast. From the report …

PROBABILITIES FOR AT LEAST ONE MAJOR (CATEGORY 3-4-5) HURRICANE LANDFALL ON AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING COASTAL AREAS:

1) Entire U.S. coastline - 60% (average for last century is 52%)

2) U.S. East Coastline including Peninsula Florida - 37% (average for last century is 31%)

3) Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle westward to Brownsville - 36% (average for last century is 30%)

4) Above average major hurricane landfall risk in the Caribbean

Click here to see the entire report.

Storm Surge Maps

Thanks to a joint effort by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and coastal localities, the following storm surge maps are now available for coastal Virginia.  The maps are broken down by region and show areas affected based on category of hurricane.

Newsletter updates from VDEM

I subscribe to the emailed newsletter from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and the one from this past week contained some very interesting information for those of us involved in emergency preparedness particularly in public spaces and hospital settings.  Two headlines grabbed my attention right away; one being the the results of a poll taken of people living on the southeast US coast with regard to hurricane preparedness, the other being a post about the OSHA guidelines for pandemic flu preparedness, which seems to have been updated since we reported on it earlier.  However, the other posts are also timely, so check it out!

Susan’s Suggestions for Pain-free Disaster Planning

Suggestion #16: Hurricane season housekeeping reminders: about the only upside of a long hurricane season is that we have some time to prepare, since it seems that most of the big storms don’t really get themselves together until later in the summer for the Southeast USA, however, we know one can happen anytime! Aside from the procedure for hurricane preparedness that’s in our disaster plan, here are some things we can all be doing now “just in case”:

• Make sure all your contact information is current, both for your staff and your vendors and other support organizations or people. Many people use only cell phones now, and their telephone numbers change more often than in the past when everyone used a “land” line.
• Check your disaster supplies: make sure there’s plastic sheeting for covering books and equipment, duct tape, and any other supplies you might need to protect your collection and facility.
• Check out the ProText disaster supplies site; they sell supplies and also offer tips on salvage techniques for water damaged materials.
• Check the SoliNet site for a list of vendors providing salvage services such as de-humidifying, freezing, etc.
• Walk around your library and note whether any collections have been re-located since the last time you updated your plan. Revise your salvage priority list if need be, i.e. if you had two hours to remove your most important materials from your library, do you know what you would take, how you’d pack them up, and where you’d put them?
• Think about what services, if any, you could offer from off-site in the aftermath of a hurricane. Can you arrange to access your library’s information from home? Is there a way to continue to provide help to your patrons with information/research needs if your library space isn’t available?
• Especially if you live in an area that is “hurricane prone,” such as Wilmington, NC or just about anywhere along the Gulf Coast and Florida, make sure you have a “Go Pack” ready at home in case you need to evacuate. Check your state’s emergency management website or the Homeland Security site for a list of what to keep ready at home.
• Remember the RML! Have contact information at hand, and at home, in case you need to send up a flare for help from the Regional Medical Library for your area.

 

 

Hurricane Tabletop Drill

Using Hurricane Isabel as the scenario, we just had performed a tabletop drill with our webmaster. The focus of the drill was on resource access and communication under the following circumstances: 1) just the Library is out of power, 2) the entire region is without power, and 3) the entire region is without power and the hospital is operating under generated power.

As a result of the drill, here are a couple of things that we will be working on this summer:

• Developing a WordPress blog that will provide emergency information. Postings from this blog will be activated on our Library’s home page in the event of a disaster.
• Utilizing a PDA phone as a multi-functional communication devise (phone, IM, and WordPress web page editing) in the event of a disaster.

Hurricane Season Begins

Today marks the opening day of the 2007 hurricane season, which will last until November 30th.  This is a good time to schedule a hurricane table top drill in order to test your preparedness procedures.  We’re doing a table top drill on Monday and I’ll report the outcomes on this blog.

Here is the list of names that will be used this season:

Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van

Carteret County, North Carolina

According to an analysis by University of Central Florida statistics professor Mark Johnson and Chuck Watson, a Georgia researcher who founded the Kinetic Analysis Corp. of Silver Spring, Md, Carteret County, North Carolina, has the highest probability of hurricane force winds in 2007 (22.4% chance). Other counties mentioned in their report include Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish (21.2%), St. Lucie and Martin counties in Florida (20.8% and 20.7%), Charleston County, South Carolina and Indian River County, Florida (tied at 20.1%).

Click here for an article on the report.

Impact of Hurricanes on Florida Hospitals

The Florida Hospital Association has published a report titled “Eye of the Storm: Impact of the 2004 Hurricane Season on Florida Hospitals.”  The report details the cost of hurricane damages and offers several lessons learned.

Hurricane Season Closes

The 2006 hurricane season came to a close yesterday without a single hurricane hitting the United States.  The 2007 season begins on June 1.