Sally Says
From the Desk of Pinellas County’s Emergency Management Director
Can it be true? Hurricane season 2009 has already started?
While it may seem that we were just ringing in the New Year, we have made it nearly halfway through 2009, and I’m afraid we’ll be at Thanksgiving before you know it.
No one could blame us for perceiving that the year is passing so quickly. From the miraculous landing of a U.S. Air 737 in the Hudson River to the dire economic news, our attention has been focused on many news events. One that recently caught everyone’s attention was the swine flu outbreak which has now circled the globe.
While the virus has yet to prove itself a significant threat to public health, the worldwide concern that was witnessed is a stark reminder that emergency preparedness should be a way of life. Had the virus spread more quickly or proven to be an efficient killer, one of the best ways to prevent its spread would have been through social distancing — keeping yourself and your family away from others.
Sure, this just seems like a minor inconvenience, but the prospect of closed businesses, schools, grocery stores and other facilities is something you should prepare for. If not due to the swine flu, a weather emergency, hazardous materials spill or some other emergency could require similar closures. The good news is that getting ready for something like pandemic flu is very similar to getting ready for hurricane season. For a list of the items you should have in your survival kit and other preparedness tips, visit www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/individual/checklist.html.
Now is a great time to prepare for the coming flu season, when this swine flu strain may be a concern. After all, this fall’s flu season will be here before you know it!
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Pinellas is a small county with a large population. If a hurricane impacts our county, we will all feel the effects. Fortunately, many of our neighbors belong to volunteer organizations and will be working hard to ensure our safety. For the upcoming editions of the E-Lert, we will be featuring some of the organizations that are looking for your help.
As part of Community Emergency Response Teams, known as CERTs, volunteers from local neighborhoods work to educate residents about the potential threats they face, provide immediate assistance to their neighbors when a catastrophic event occurs and assist with aspects of the recovery operation.
CERT members don’t take the places of sworn law enforcement members, firefighters or paramedics. But they do receive training in basic first aid, communications, damage assessment and other necessary skills to assist in the event of a disaster.
Many local fire departments have CERT programs. For more information, or to join a CERT program, please call your local fire department or check out their Web pages.
- Dunedin’s CERT: www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=10352
- East Lake’s CERT: www.eastlakecert.org/
- Gulfport’s CERT: www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=35144
- Lealman’s CERT: www.lealmancert.org/
- Pinellas Suncoast CERT: www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=10408
- Safety Harbor’s CERT: www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=10416
- South Pasadena’s CERT: www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=10429
- St. Pete Beach’s CERT: www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=10432
- Treasure Island’s CERT: www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=10441
The Exploding Home Myth
"Don’t close and shutter your windows! If you seal a home up, it will explode from the pressure differential!"
While the myth of cracking the windows on the downwind side of a home is an old hurricane myth, it still gets repeated and held up as a fact. What about this myth, and why are people so concerned about the potential for exploding homes?
To get to the root of the matter, you first have to understand that hurricanes are basically intense low-pressure systems. The lower the atmospheric pressure, the more intense the storm. On a typical summer day in Tampa Bay, the average barometric pressure is measured at about 1015 milibars (mb — a metric unit of atmospheric pressure). In Hurricane Wilma, the most intense hurricane measured in the Atlantic, the pressure dipped to 882 mb.
The belief is that a home which is sealed up will not allow for sufficient air exchange between the air inside the home at a higher pressure and the lower pressure outdoors, which will force the air inside to rush out of the smallest crack – somewhat akin to what happens in an airliner if a window is broken out at altitude.
This is not only a myth, it’s a dangerous one. No home is perfectly sealed. In a typical home, the clothes dryer vent, bathroom and kitchen exhaust vents and even the light-switch and electrical -outlet boxes serve as a path for air inside the home to exchange with the air outside. And, if your windows and doors don’t have adequate weather stripping, not only does the air exchange, it also carries off your cool conditioned air. There is no way that a home can explode from a pressure differential in a hurricane.
The real danger exists when wind can get into a home and force its way out through a weak point – Through an unprotected window, by lifting up the roof or blowing out a garage door. Once the envelope of the structure is compromised, the high winds and rain can destroy your home.
The best and most important thing to do is to close and shutter your windows, brace your entry doors and replace your garage door with a wind-rated model appropriate for your wind zone. A contractor or home improvement center can help you select the correct models.
For more information on how to protect your home from high winds, visit the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes website at www.flash.org.
Storms in History
Hurricane Alma, June 4 - 13, 1966
While many people living in the Tampa Bay area focus on the height of the hurricane season from late August to early October, Florida’s west coast is actually very vulnerable to early and late season storms.
Case in point is 1966’s Hurricane Alma. Forming at the tail end of a cold front which stretched to Honduras, the storm’s center wobbled over land for a few days until it emerged into the eastern Gulf and intensified. Taking a course slightly west of due north, the storm intensified to a strong category 1 storm when it impacted Cuba. Once it cleared the island nation, Alma intensified further to a category 3, moving between Key West and the Dry Tortugas, where 125 mile-per-hour winds were measured. Alma still holds the record as the second earliest major hurricane to make landfall in the Atlantic (a storm in late May or early June of 1825 holds this record).
The storm continued its northward trek, scraping close to the coast of Pinellas County. While some isolated readings of hurricane-force winds were noted, the coverage was not widespread. For instance, a sustained-wind reading of 82 mph was recorded on Treasure Island, but across town at Coquina Key, the maximum sustained wind was measured at 65 miles per hour.
The storm later went on to make landfall in the Florida panhandle, cross Florida into the Atlantic and briefly become a hurricane again off the coast of North Carolina.
Alma claimed the lives of 90 victims in Cuba, Honduras, Florida and Georgia, and caused nearly $1 billion of damage in 2009 dollars.
For more information on Hurricane Alma, visit the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Alma at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Alma_(1966).
We take our show on the road
Hurricane season is coming, and if you’re looking for a presentation for your homeowner’s association, civic group, church, business or other gathering, Pinellas County can help.
Currently, there are six hurricane-related presentations that can be requested:
- Hurricane 101 - What are hurricanes? How do they form? What are their effects? Get the basics on these dangerous tropical storms.
- Preparing your Pets - Remember that Fluffy and Fido need to be planned for as well. Learn some common-sense tips on how to prepare your pet for hurricane season.
- Does it Take a Category 5? - Everyone in Florida worries about the next ‘big one.’ But does a hurricane have to be a monster to do major damage? See what damage storms of all Saffir-Simpson categories are able to do.
- Becoming Storm Savvy - While we are still in the hurricane preseason, now is an excellent time to learn how you can prepare yourself to prevent panic if we are affected by a storm. From learning how to put together a survival kit without busting your budget to planning ahead for evacuations, tips are offered for everyone.
- Busting Hurricane Myths - Learn the dangers of some commonly held beliefs when hurricanes approach. Not only will you find the real story, you may also save your life if the big one comes.
- Hurricanes for Kids - Hurricane season can be a very trying time for younger family members. By using experiments and easy-to-understand language, your youngsters can find some control over these scary situations.
This year, Pinellas County Emergency Management and Pinellas County Communications departments are partnering once again with the Pinellas County Library Cooperative for a series of talks. The schedule for the upcoming hurricane education sessions is:
- June 1, 6:30 p.m. – Hurricanes for Kids
Largo Public Library, 120 Central Park Drive, Largo (727) 587-6715 - June 2, 6 p.m. – Becoming Storm Savvy
Safety Harbor Public Library 101 Second St. N, Safety Harbor (727) 724-1525 - June 2, 7 p.m. – Preparing your Pet
Dunedin Public Library, 223 Douglas Ave., Dunedin (727) 298-3080 - June 8, 6:30 p.m. – Hurricanes for Kids
Palm Harbor Library, 2330 Nebraska Ave., Palm Harbor (727) 784-3332 - June 15, 6:30 p.m. – Busting Hurricane Myths
Palm Harbor Library, 2330 Nebraska Ave., Palm Harbor (727) 784-3332 - June 17, 7 p.m. – Busting Hurricane Myths
St. Pete Beach Public Library, 365 73rd Ave., St. Pete Beach (727) 363-9238 - July 1, 11 a.m. – Hurricanes for Kids
Tarpon Springs Library, 138 E. Lemon St., Tarpon Springs (727) 943-4922 - July 11, 10:30 a.m. – Hurricanes for Kids
St. Pete Beach Public Library, 365 73rd Ave., St. Pete Beach (727) 363-9238
To schedule a speaker, call Pinellas County’s Speakers Bureau at (727) 464-3000. Remember, knowledge is power. We can’t do anything about the weather, but by knowing what to do when bad weather threatens, you can gain control over your personal safety.
What does THAT mean?
Take a look at any report of an approaching hurricane, and the meteorologist will no doubt be talking about a hurricane’s maximum sustained wind speed. Just what does that mean, and why is it important to you?
In the areas of the globe monitored by the National Hurricane Center (the Atlantic basin and the eastern Pacific basin), meteorologists attempt to find the highest average wind speed for a one-minute period at an elevation of 10 meters (33 feet) above the ground. In most other areas of the world, a 10 minute average period is used.
How are these wind speeds measured? Well often times they are estimated and not directly measured. But, meteorologists increasingly have more tools at their disposal to help them determine how strong a storm is.
Anemometers: These wind gauges come in many shapes and sizes, but the most common ones are called cup anemometers. Unfortunately, anemometers typically fail in the high speed winds of a hurricane, giving only partial information. Anemometers are generally only available when a hurricane is making landfall or if a storm passes over a buoy in the ocean.
Doppler Radar: Besides doing the typical radar duty of detecting where rain is falling, these devices can measure the speed of wind blowing both toward and away from the antenna, giving very accurate measurements of wind speed. The winds detected by the radar are above the surface and must be adjusted to provide an accurate estimate of ground-level winds. You can learn more about the Doppler Effect here: http://science.howstuffworks.com/radar.htm.
Reconnaissance Aircraft Data: Reconnaissance aircraft can sample flight-level winds every few seconds which can be used to estimate surface winds in a hurricane. The aircraft also drops instruments called dropwindsondes that measure atmospheric pressure, wind and humidity from the level the aircraft is flying all the way down to the surface. These instruments can accurately measure the winds inside a hurricane’s eye wall.
The aircraft is also equipped with an instrument called the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer. Affectionately known as the Smurf, this device is attached to the wing of the P-3 and WC-130 aircraft that fly into hurricanes. It reads the microwave radiation coming off the wind-whipped sea surface. Yes, those are the same microwaves you find at home in the kitchen, but they are not powerful enough to pop a bag of popcorn. The faster the wind, the more energy the sea emits, giving researchers an extremely accurate reading of wind speed. This device is standard equipment on all hurricane hunter aircraft starting this year and can measure winds all the way up to category 5 strength.
Satellites: A series of weather satellites circles the globe keeping an unblinking watch on the weather. When a storm is far from land, meteorologists can estimate the maximum winds in a tropical storm or hurricane by looking at its cloud characteristics. This process is called the Dvorak technique and — outside of the National Hurricane Center — is the sole way most tropical meteorologists estimate wind speed for these killer storms.
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