Everyone Needs Someone to Rely on - National Hurricane Prep Week

It's that time of year again - National Hurricane Preparation Week in advance of the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season starting on June 1st.  This is the time of year when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts the number of hurricanes we might see.  A normal season would have 9-12 “named” storms, 5-7 of these reaching hurricane strength and 1-3 forming major hurricanes. For 2014, the forecast seems pretty in line with normal predictions: 8-13 named storms, 3-6 hurricanes and 1 or 2 "major hurricanes".  

None of these predictions compare to the record 2005 hurricane season that crushed all previous records with SEVEN major hurricanes. Four of those were Category Five storms, including Hurricane Katrina.

The Importance of Being Prepared

Everyone located within proximity to possible hurricane and storm landfall is recommended to have a hurricane/emergency preparation plan in place. Other people may live in areas prone to the other devastating force of nature, tornados.  For them, their tornado emergency plan would be similar. 

Broward County Florida has an excellent on-line resource for Hurricane Preparation, located athttp://www.broward.org/Hurricane/HurricanePreparednessGuide/Pages/Guide1.aspx.

For tornados and non-hurricane preparation, the NOAA has an excellent online resource located athttp://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html.

These are excellent public-domain resources that have been prepared by professionals to help you and your family stay safe this hurricane season. 

Everyone Needs Someone To Rely On. Are You Ready?

Generators are essential pieces of equipment to get you through a hurricane. But they're also machines that get taken for granted - we forget about them until it's time to use them.  Then we hope they will work. But here's a couple of facts - during Hurricane Sandy and the last round of major hurricanes, almost half of backup generator systems did not work. And the big reason why they didn't work was "bad fuel" or fuel-related problems.

An essential part of your storm readiness plan should be ensuring your generator is ready for use when you need it. We've done a number of blogs covering recommendations for steps to take to keep your emergency generator in working order. Check them out - they should be helpful.