With various weather outlets using the term historic when talking about this year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season taking the time to be prepared might be a good idea. Being Prepared is the single thing that one can do to ensure survival. One good thing about hurricanes is that they are often monitored from the time they are thunderstorms off the Africa coast and continuously as they become tropical storms and hurricanes. Frequently this period is several weeks. With all that time to be prepared, one would think that there should be no causalities as everyone would be prepared. However, this is not true, people continue to need to be rescued in high water, need shelter, or need some sort of other assistance. The big question is WHY? Three reasons come to mind why people aren’t ready. They are (1) the notion that the weather forecasters get it wrong and that the storm always misses us; (2) I don’t have the time to prepare, or it takes too much effort to be prepared; and (3) Why should I prepared if government is there to take care of me. We will briefly address each one of these reasons and hopefully push you towards being more prepared.
(1) – “The weather forecasters get it wrong and the storm always misses us” – Weather forecasts are a prediction of what should happen when certain weather components meet. These predictions or forecasts are created by highly trained individuals consulting an incredible amount of weather data. The facts are the National Weather Service for the short-term forecast (0 to 3 days) has an average accuracy of 90% for temperature and 85% for precipitation. Then why does it always seem the storm misses us? A big part of this notion is probably due to the fact most of us do not follow the weather closely enough. Many check the weather only once or twice a day while the National Weather Service is constantly updating and posting their forecast many times a day. When it comes to Hurricanes we have been very lucky and have not seen a direct hit in years. But there were many times when the predictions had the path centered over Cape May County and several hours out the path changed. Does that mean the forecast was wrong? It would be best if you were prepared the same for a storm that will likely hit us, as a storm that is predicted to hit us. The bottom line is that it is better to prepare and not have the storm hit us rather than wait to see if the storm changes path and not be prepared when the storm does hit us.
(2) – “It’s too hard and costs too much money to prepare” – While it is true nothing in life is free, sometimes people tend to over-engineer things. Preparedness is simply being ready for what’s to come in the best possible way you can. Basically in any situation, there are two choices – evacuate or shelter-in-place. Evacuation is knowing what is important to take and where you are going to go, while shelter-in-place is having enough supplies to get you through a period, which can be several days. In some cases, you will not have electricity. A checklist works best for evacuation while pantry management will ensure you have enough supplies on hand for several days. There are items such as a generator or solar panels with a rechargeable power supply that would be nice but for some, they’re not necessary. One should do what one can within their resources. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend the best thing you can do is purchase a pencil and paper pad and write out a plan. A plan will save time, money, and worry and will ensure you are on the path to survival.
(3)– “The Government is there to take care of me, why should I prepare?” The reality is in a major storm there would not be enough first responders to handle all the calls for service if everyone relied on the local municipal services. First Responders are there for emergencies and to assist the most in-need individuals, i.e., those with special needs or those with no family to assist them. In a city with 46.5 percent of the population aged 65 years or older, we have a larger group that may need assistance. Taking a look at the first responders, the City relies on a core group of career firefighters and police officers, plus a group of volunteer firefighters. As property values go up there are less young people who live in town and want to volunteer. Also, as the population ages so do the volunteers and each year there are fewer and fewer to count on. With fewer resources calls for service will be prioritized, and response times will increase, leaving those able to care for themselves to be handled last. Lastly, the emergency infrastructure – high water vehicles and shelters have limited capacities. In a storm situation, the government works best as an alerting agency and guidance agency. Alerting you what’s coming and then guiding you, such as evacuation routes, sheltering in place, etc.
Everyone needs to make some sort of effort to be prepared. The minimal thing all should do is at least think about the “what ifs” – such as what do I do if it’s going to flood, what do I do if an evacuation order is issued, what do I do if flood water is expected to come in my house. After you have thought about what to do jot down some notes on what you need to do, now you have the basic plan. Plans don’t always have to be a formal written plan they can be a flow chart, checklist, or bulleted list. Resources for preparedness can be found on North Wildwood’s Ready website HTTP://ready.northwildwood.com.