By Staff
Remember when weather forecasters told us a year ago to expect a long and tumultuous hurricane season?
It didn't happen.
Forecasters have predicted the same thing this year, but they've also assured us that there are no weather patterns to take those forecasts off course this time around. This year experts have said we can expect between 13 and 17 named storms, with at least seven and as many as 10 becoming hurricanes. Three to five of those will be Category 3 or higher storms, experts said.
We're going to take them at their word.
We're only two and a half years removed from Hurricane Ivan and its destructive force on our community, and just a year and a half past the series of storms that devastated the gulf coast and New Orleans.
Now is not the time to become complacent about what a storm can do to your home and your family. Take the time now to prepare - have a plan in place for where your family will go if a hurricane is bearing down on the coast; have provisions stocked up if you intend to stay.
We hope we do not see a hurricane as strong as Ivan or Katrina in our community this year, but we need to remain vigilant in the face of the forecasts that tell us the Atlantic storm season will be difficult.
We need to prepare our families, and we need to support our community's and our county's efforts to get prepared as well.
Get your family ready. Get your home ready.
And let's all pray we don't need the plans we make.