In just a few days on June 1st the Atlantic Hurricane Season starts and continues until November 30th. Several Weeks ago during National Hurricane Preparedness Week we featured daily tips on our Facebook Page. The tips are generally the same each year starting with Determine your Risk, and followed by Develop an Evacuation Plan, Assemble Disaster Supplies, Get an Insurance Checkup, Strengthen your Home, Help your Neighbors, and Complete a Written Plan. As many of you that follow the trends in Emergency Management you can see that there is an emphasis on self reliance, that is being prepared on the family level rather than wait until FEMA, local government or other emergency agency to arrive. The facts are there are not enough emergency equipment, first responding individuals, or shelters to care for everyone in a major disaster. When you consider that North Wildwood’s year round population is around 4,000 people and swells to cost to 70,000 people in the summer you can see the monumental task that it would be to assist everyone if most did not individually prepare for themselves. On our “ready’ website – http;//ready.northwildwood.com you will find links that are divided into two general categories first “Important Links” which are generally observation links, such as the current weather, etc. and the “Be Prepared” links which are generally links to different websites that help you prepare for specific types of events. Both are important and helpful. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the links and the information they contain.
As you probably already know most of the issues that affect us are weather related. While Hurricanes have caused the most damage at one time we are seeing more and more severe weather affecting our area that cause damages in smaller increments which in the long run may approach the damages from a Hurricane. Severe weather comes in the form of thunderstorms, hail storms, straight line wind, etc. What can we do? the first thing is be aware of the weather. The National Weather Service puts out severe weather predictions well in advance – make it a point to check the weather regularly as part of your daily activities. Second – Have a way to get the weather updates – If you have a smart phone download the FEMA App or any weather App that sends alerts to your phone. What is nice with a smart phone you can set the App to read your location from the built in GPS and give you the alerts for where you are exactly at. If you don’t have a smart phone – get a inexpensive weather radio with SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) Alerts. If you travel a lot get a portable weather radio that you take with you rather than a desk top model. Now a days with home computers and the Internet you have access to more information than ever before. You can monitor NWS Weather Doppler Radar live HERE or you can check the thousands of personal weather stations that are online HERE or you can watch live video transmitted by storm chasers of tornadoes they are looking at HERE or check what the tide is at various locations HERE or real time lightning strikes HERE. Some pages you might have to zoom in or change location but they are easy to navigate. These are only a few examples of what is available by spending a few minutes doing searches. Save the ones you like and bookmark them for future use and get into a habit of checking them often.