Officials Take Stock of Plans As Hurricane Season Approaches

It’s that time of year again. Hurricane season is just around the corner. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on how officials think this year will stack up.

Federal forecasters have predicted a near normal hurricane season this year, with an expected 9 to 14 named storms. But for those officials on the ground predictions don’t mean much. Admiral Thad Allen is Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard,

“Yeah we’re kind of agnostic to the predictions, cause something’s going to happen somewhere. We need to take the same steps because you have to be prepared for a catastrophic event should one occur. So while it is interesting how many storms may happen, we just bear down on what we need to accomplish the mission.”

The 60 miles of Mississippi coastline which lie along the Gulf of Mexico pose certain elevated risks during hurricanes because of the shallow waters right off the Coast which can lead to large storm surges. It’s those storm surges that create catastrophic damage, says U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Joel Whitehead,

“Every hurricane it can just change by a mile or two in one direction, east to west and it can have tremendously different impact. So we have to be very weary whenever comes and enters the Gulf of Mexico.”

The good news says Congressmen Gene Taylor is that communications systems have been upgraded, and hurricane Katrina provided a good learning lesson,

“We’ve got a lot better coordination between the coast guard, the National Guard and the local governing authorities as to what we need to do in the event of another one. We’ve been through it so that in itself means a lot.”

Governor Barbour has proclaimed this hurricane preparedness week and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency will be holding hurricane preparedness and awareness events on the Coast through Friday.