Saturday, August 18, 2007

Texas Hurricane News site

UPDATE:   19 Aug. 2007
Currently, it looks like Dean will make Cat. 5 and fall far south of Texas. People in the Yucatan Peninsula as well as central and coastal Mexico need to be on high alert and evacuate if possible or at least secure shelter and enough supplies to survive for a week or more.

Although it could make a sharp turn after it hits Cancun and come across the Gulf (and regain strength), it's somewhat unlikely. However, we're not clear until it hits the Mexican mainland.

Hurricane Dean is predicted to make landfall anywhere from Brownsville (about 450 miles from Beaumont) to southern Mexico. It's a major storm and requires attention. It's best to prepare now.

The Beaumont Enterprise has developed Texas Hurricane News. It's a comprehensive site with checklists, evacuation maps, hurricane tracking maps, post-storm advice and other features. It contains useful advice for anyone living along the Gulf or East coasts.

Additionally, there is an online forum to locate separated family members or exchange other hurricane-related information.

It was developed after hurricanes Rita and Katrina and incorporates lessons learned.

Enough for now,

2 comments:

Bryon Houlgrave said...

Be safe, good luck, and happy shooting.

Mark M. Hancock said...

Thanks. :-)

At the moment, we stood down. We'll see what happens after Cancun.
Considering there is a chain of storms in Africa this month, we're expecting a lot of disruption this year.
At least we got to evaluate some evacuation preparations. They seem prepared.
Fuel trucks, mobile toilets and the Texas Guard (Texas has its own volunteer Army) were already being positioned. School busses in North Texas were prepared to rush down here for mass evacuations. Trucks were reserved in North Texas to bring supplies to this area after hurricane landfall.
The state was prepared to close east/west highways in Southern Texas (so autos could go north in an orderly fashion).
We're either going to get really good at this or get burned out, drop our guard and die.