Don’t wait to be caught in the cone of uncertainty.
Manatee County emergency management chief Steve Litschauer and public information officer Nick Azzara stressed the message May 28, as they conducted an annual tradition in an untraditional way.
They paired up to conduct the county’s “media day” for the Atlantic hurricane season on a Zoom call rather than at the emergency operations center in east Bradenton.
“It only takes one storm — the one that is headed toward us” — to deliver disaster, so be prepared, Litschauer said of the season that runs now through Nov. 30.
Preparations involve organizing papers, maintaining and securing personal property, confirming insurance and restocking home supplies.
Azzara emphasized stocking up now to take advantage of the tax-free holiday that ends June 4 and to avoid finding empty shelves when a storm materializes.
“You’ll beat the rush,” he said.
Preparations also should involve making multiple plans for sheltering in a hurricane during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Depending on the nature of the storm and the age of their home, some people might shelter in place.
“Seventy percent of the homes in Manatee County can withstand strong winds,” Azzara said.
“It’s so important to know about the construction of your home,” said Litschauer, referring people to a resource, mymanatee.org/information, where they can find information about their property, as well as flood zone, evacuation level, commission district and more.
Another resource, mymanatee.org/emergencyinfo, provides information about sandbagging stations and public shelters, which emergency officials say should be “last resort” destinations.
Capacity at shelters will be reduced so people can physically distance while providing secure cover for evacuees in a storm.
But, Azzara stressed, there are no guarantees people will be protected from the virus.
“You are putting yourself at risk,” he said.
“The shelter, this year with COVID, is really a refuge of last resort,” Litschauer added.
The county recommends people make plans to stay with friends and family or arrange for lodging at hotels or vacation rentals.
“Drive tens of miles instead of 100s of miles,” Azzara said. “Look within the community or not too far outside.”
Storm names: Short, distinctive, cyclical
Hurricane Hanna might materialize this year, but never Hazel, who was retired in 1954.
Atlantic tropical storms are named from lists — six lists, maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization and used in a six-year rotation.
The first lists originated with the NHC in 1953 and, at the time, featured only women’s names. Men’s names were introduced in 1979 and now alternate with women’s names on the lists.
The assigned names are short and distinctive, and using them is quicker and less subject to error than the use of latitude-longitude identification methods for storms.
These advantages are especially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases and ships at sea, according to the National Hurricane Center.
If a storm forms in the offseason, it will take the next name from the list based on the current calendar date. For example, if a tropical cyclone formed Dec. 28, it would take the name from the previous season’s list of names. If a storm forms in April, it would be named from the upcoming season’s list of names.
In the event more than 21 tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so on.
The only time there is a change in the names is if a storm proves so deadly or costly that the future use of its name for a different storm would be insensitive.
The decision to strike a name from a list is made by the WMO committee, which also creates a new name.
— Lisa Neff