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Tag: Florida hurricane season

Prepare for hurricane season

Written by Louise Bolger on . Posted in Business, Castles in the Sand, Hurricane Guide, Special Sections.

Call me crazy, but whenever the hurricane predictions are disclosed for the impending hurricane season it seems to always be the highest number of storms EVER. Well, this year’s predictions are again warning of an extremely active hurricane season, so batten down the hatches and tie up the kids.

According to the Colorado State University forecast, which came out on April 4, they are indicating 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes and five major hurricanes with between four and six making landfall. By comparison, a typical year averages about 14 tropical storms with seven turning into hurricanes.

The reason for this is a combination of very warm water in the Atlantic and La Nina, which supports more storms. Warm water gives hurricanes fuel and contributes to a more unstable atmosphere. Ocean temperatures in much of the Atlantic have been setting records for more than a year and scientists have been unable to fully explain why.

At the top of the preparedness list are always non-perishable foods and, although many cans have pull tops, it’s best to buy a manual or battery-operated can opener. Next is bottled water and buy it early because, with the prediction of a storm, the shelves are quickly emptied. Batteries, cash in case the ATMs go down in a bad storm, and a full tank of gas are a must. Battery-operated lights and flashlights with candles as a backup are also a must. Once storms are on the way, it’s too late to purchase storm shutters, but this is something you should consider long before you need them.

Charge up your smartphones and tablets and buy a battery backup. Know where your important papers are like insurance policies, school records, mortgage information, tax returns, photos and any other papers you might need in a hurry if your evacuation is longer than you expect. Also, take prescriptions and information to renew them in case you don’t get home for a while. Outside, remove any objects that can be blown away in heavy wind, furniture, toys, plants and awnings. Secure vessels that can’t be relocated with plenty of fenders and extra lines to accommodate the tides and turn off power to the boat.

Have an evacuation plan in place with either a friend or relative and prepare a list of hotels. Don’t forget the pets, their food and medications. It’s also a good idea to take current pictures and/or videos of the interior and exterior of your property for insurance purposes should you have damage.

The mymanatee.org website has a great deal of detailed information concerning everything I just outlined but in more detail. It’s worth taking the time to read it and implement some of their recommendations.

Finally, if you are in the process of selling or purchasing a new property, remember when storms are in the forecast it is usually not possible to bind an insurance company to cover the new property. This could delay your closing, but hopefully, everyone involved in the transaction will be cooperative.

It’s not all bad news. The hurricane season outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration isn’t due out until May. However, their forecasters are looking at some of the same problematic models. Nevertheless, we are all warned not to focus on these predictions since other factors come into play in how many storms we get and how strong they are.

My job is not to make predictions but to remind you to get your property and your family ready for the worst and hope for the best. Just assume it will be an active season and start stocking those cans and cases of water.

Castles in the Sand

Can’t be, not again – it’s hurricane season

Written by Louise Bolger on . Posted in Business, Castles in the Sand.

As we get older, the years tick by more quickly – or so it seems – and here we are again looking down the barrel of the 2022 North Atlantic hurricane season cannon.

As usual, Colorado State University has released their predictions for the 2022 hurricane season. Also as usual, the season is predicted to be above average.

The average number of named storms in the North Atlantic stands at 14, seven of them hurricanes and three of them major hurricanes. The prediction for 2022 is 19 named storms, nine of them hurricanes and four major hurricanes, because of warmer waters and a lack of El Nino conditions, according to CSU. This is slightly above last year’s predictions of 17 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

The fun part of the beginning of hurricane season, if you can justify anything fun about hurricanes, is the names we can expect to hear any day now. This year starts with Alex and ends with Walter. Along the way we have Danielle, Lisa and Richard, among others, but my favorite of this season is Hermine, number eight in the list. Hopefully, we won’t run out of names this year.

The not-so-fun part of getting ready for hurricane season is preparing your home and your family in the event that Hermine comes knocking. The obvious items to add to your hurricane preparedness list are non-perishable foods, usually in cans (don’t forget the manual can opener), bottled water (buy it now; it’s the first thing to fly off the shelves when a storm is coming), batteries, cash, full tank of gas, prescriptions, candles or battery-operated lights, and if you still have a land line telephone, it’s not a bad idea to hang on to it or at the very least keep your cell phones and iPads fully charged if you’re facing a storm.

Remove any outdoor flying objects, furniture, toys, plants and awnings that can turn into missiles aimed at your windows. Secure your boats or move them to dry land if possible. Put together a briefcase with important papers if you need to evacuate like insurance policies, school records, home mortgage information, recent tax returns, bank records, investment records, even important photos or diplomas just in case.

If you live in a potential evacuation area, like I do, make a list of local hotels off the water or set up a safe house with a friend or relative to go to. You always have the official Manatee County shelter evacuation locations; know where yours is.

The mymanatee.org website has a great deal of information concerning everything I just outlined, but in much more detail. It’s worth taking the time to read it and to implement some of their recommendations. Hopefully by now you have upgraded your home to conform to hurricane guidelines, securing all windows, doors and roofs.

A quick note about another disaster. The 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse has been settled to resolve the wrongful death claims brought by family members of the 98 victims. The settlement was for $997 million; this was on top of the settlement earlier this year for the property damage claims of about $83 million.

Let’s hope the families of these poor people can find some peace. Let’s also hope that we can get through this hurricane season peacefully as well, and that Hermine or Gaston or Paula behave themselves. Be safe.

Evacuation sign

Does anybody care that it’s hurricane season?

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Business, Tourism.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – The first of June marked the beginning of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, and if things go as predicted by many weather experts, it should be another very active season.

The beginning of June also saw COVID travel restrictions drop in most of the U.S. just in time for the end of the school year. These factors, along with new flights being added at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) and a general desire for many to finally take a vacation after more than a year of lockdown, have created the perfect recipe for a record-breaking summer season on the Island. 

In years past, the first day of summer unofficially signals the end of the spring snowbird and tourist season on the Island, but that certainly isn’t the case in 2021, and very few of these visitors and potential future visitors seem very concerned about hurricane season.

“We checked the weather before we got on the plane and saw a tropical storm that was likely to become a hurricane, then we noticed there is a good chance of thunderstorms every day we are going to be there,” said Kimberly Rotz, who arrived a day before Hurricane Elsa with her family from suburban Indianapolis, where temperatures had been close to 96 degrees when they got on the plane. “Not the best scenario, but neither is the record heat here at home. At least you guys have an ocean and plenty of pool space to beat the heat.”

Rotz said she and her husband did some research and saw that hurricanes tend to miss the Island historically, and they didn’t feel there was a safety issue for her family based on a close watch of Elsa’s approach.

“We called our resort and asked if the windows and doors were hurricane safe, and also asked if there had been a history of damage to the property during past storms. When the person we spoke to said the property was up to code, and no evacuation order seemed to be coming, we decided to come down and ride it out. It turned out to be pretty tame, so I’m glad we made that decision,” Rotz added. 

The Rotz family aren’t the only ones that don’t seem to be too worried about hurricane season or the summer heat. Island-related social media sites are full of posts and comments from people who are ready to start their vacations. 

“We are coming down July 24 – July 31, and we can’t wait. We’ve been coming to Holmes Beach for seven years, but this will be our first summer trip. We usually come in March or April, but COVID kept that from happening this year,” said Maria Rivera, who will be flying from Hartford, Conn. Rivera, who is originally from Puerto Rico, fell in love with the Island and its beaches after coming with friends in 2014. 

“Growing up in Puerto Rico, we were constantly in the path of hurricanes. In 1998, Hurricane Georges did billions of dollars in damage and we didn’t have electricity for weeks. I’ve lived through serious destruction, and nothing like that has ever happened on Anna Maria Island, so while it’s silly to not be cautious, it seems like the odds are in favor of the Island,” said Rivera, who added that she has no problem with the summer heat, as long as there is someplace air-conditioned to escape to.

Bradenton Beach
Despite a bit of beach erosion from heavy surf, things are back to normal on Bradenton Beach after a visit from Hurricane Elsa. – Jason Schaffer | Sun

Rivera is correct about Anna Maria Island historically being spared the worst during hurricane season. Elsa was expected to be just a few miles offshore, and with the eastern side of a hurricane usually packing the higher wind speeds and more severe rainfall, it looked like it was poised to cause flooding and a high storm surge. Other problems such as power outages and downed trees looked to be a likely scenario as well, but once again, it just didn’t happen. 

Historic hurricane misses

Most recently, Hurricane Irma hit the area in September 2017. The storm was a Category 5 before it hit Cuba, and by the time it made its way to the Island, it had significantly weakened to a Category 2. While still a serious storm that leads to a mandatory evacuation of the Island, serious damage was not nearly what it could have been. The City Pier was damaged and had to be closed for extensive renovation and power outages were widespread, but for the most part, homes and businesses didn’t suffer serious damage.

In 2004, Hurricane Charlie also caused a lot of damage to Florida cities but spared the Bradenton area and the Island with winds that didn’t top 60 mph. 2004 also saw Ivan and Frances, two massive storms that came close but did not significantly impact the Island. 

Despite the Island’s good luck, watches and warnings should always be taken seriously, because the past does not predict the future. At some point the big storm will come; according to meteorologists, it is a virtual certainty. In the meantime, watching out for everyday storm-related dangers like lightning and flooding is always good practice.

Hurricane Harvey

Help spot severe storms with SKYWARN

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – The National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office is looking for some volunteers to help make their forecasts and severe weather warnings more accurate.

More than a dozen community members came out to Holmes Beach City Hall Aug. 15 to learn about the SKYWARN volunteer program and receive training from two National Weather Service representatives – Daniel Noah, a warning coordination meteorologist and Austen Flannery, a pathways meteorologist.

Help spot severe storms with SKYWARN
Daniel Noah, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, discusses different types of clouds and severe rainstorms begin Aug. 15 during a SKYWARN training session at Holmes Beach City Hall. – Kristin Swain | Sun

Noah said that volunteers with the SKYWARN program are the eyes of the National Weather Service on the ground. With radar, he said it’s possible to see storms that are far away but that locally, radar has a few blind spots, particularly within the first 20 miles around the radar tower, and it’s not always accurate. That’s where SKYWARN volunteers come in. Volunteers are asked to report any severe weather that they view, whether it’s more than an inch of rainfall over the course of an hour, flooding in areas that don’t ordinarily flood or waterspouts near the coast.

Meteorologists at the local Tampa Bay branch of the National Weather Service in Ruskin are tasked with determining when severe weather warnings and watches need to go out across television stations, radio airwaves and to cellphones located within the area. By having volunteers who can report what’s happening on the ground, Noah said the National Weather Service can make a more accurate determination when issuing a watch or warning to local inhabitants.

During the Aug. 15 presentation, Flannery and Noah discussed what types of weather volunteers should look out for and report, how to report the information and how to estimate wind speed or determine if a funnel cloud is really a tornado or if it’s just a cloud in a funny shape. Volunteers also were educated on basic storm safety, including preparing for the aftermath of a hurricane.

Flannery said that Sept. 10 is the peak of hurricane season for Florida with a secondary peak in mid-October. Though he said everyone should prepare for at least one storm each year by gathering supplies and making an evacuation plan, he said there’s a one in 200 chance of Anna Maria Island taking a hit from a hurricane similar to the damage that Hurricane Michael brought to Mexico Beach.

He suggested planning more for after the storm than during it by having a seven to 10 day supply of food and water available, stocking up on cleaning supplies and evacuating tens of miles instead of hundreds of miles if you need to leave your home before the storm so that it’s easier to get back and begin cleanup once the storm passes.

Anyone age 18 or older can volunteer as a SKYWARN spotter. Volunteers are required to complete either an in-person training session or a webinar training session to be certified. Certification must be renewed every three years.

For more information or to sign up as a volunteer, visit https://www.weather.gov/tbw/skywarn.