People who are impacted by a significant disaster need help to arrive as soon as possible. In fact, it can’t arrive soon enough.

The forecasters were not wrong about Hurricane Helen. They predicted that it could rapidly increase in severity and the size of the storm was well understood. Storm surge predictions were on the money. However, the results were much more impactful than people expected.

All disasters have a  political aspect to them from the local, state and national level. When you have a mega disaster, shall I say “catastrophe” like Hurricane Helene the politics of a disaster goes sky-high in a presidential election year.

Rethink how long you need to be prepared to be without electrical power and factor that into your disaster preparedness equation—which includes the number of days you will be on your own.

This appears to be a new effort to help coordinate on a national level the support that can be provided by National Football stadiums. They are using the term “Mission Ready Venue.” I know back in the day we always worked to have good relationships with ballparks of all types, both baseball and football. But, this makes it more “official” and with backing from the National Football League.

Have you thought about the risk of landslides in your community?

Coming soon to the Gulf Coast—another hurricane, arriving either Wednesday or Thursday. If the naming standard remains as I read it previously, it should be Hurricane Gordon. A storm is currently in the Caribbean and those warm waters will fuel the winds that make it a hurricane.

In terms of bugle calls, it is time to “Sound Retreat!” That means, move back from the water’s edge

Not many people have the luxury of designing a new multi-million dollar facilities like I did, but you should be looking at your own situation that you have now and how you might harden it to make the protection level go up to meet the threats of today.

EMS needs to be designated as an essential service

 Heat and extended power outages are killers.

The 2024 hurricane season was predicted to be an active one. With some early activity—things went quiet for most of August.

Well, the first thing I did was look up the meaning of “parsimonious” to have some idea of what they were talking about. The definition “I think they are using” is this: “What does it mean that science is parsimonious?

If you think you can avoid politics as an emergency manager…guess again.

Politics, the Presidential Election and upcoming debate, and not to mention the start of the college and National Football seasons dominate what I’m seeing and reading and…yet, the weather has not gone away totally.

While writing this blog post I was thinking about the tax implications of those homes lost to the waves. The land, sand, shore remains, so I expect they still have to pay taxes for the property even if they don’t have a home on the site---hmm?

There has been a very active hurricane season already. Right now we are in a bit of a grace period, but the forecast for September is increasingly threatening.  Check out the forecast below. It is sobering indeed.

It is an astonishing fact that according to the NY Times, Half Their Land Burned in a Decade: The California Counties Constantly on Fire

The threat is not storm surge this time, but high tides and rip currents that can sweep swimmers out to sea.