Hurricanes – Preparation
ambience: hurricane winds
Hurricane season is approaching, and officials will once again be on the alert for coastal flooding in communities along the Atlantic seaboard. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. The most vulnerable area – from North Carolina down along the Florida shoreline, and then on up to Texas – well, that also happens to be the region with one of the biggest surges in population over the past several decades. Jay Barnes, author of North Carolina’s Hurricane History tells us what steps can be taken to reduce the flood damage in this region during a hurricane.
“We know that building in flood plains is a real problem. We certainly experienced here in North Carolina severe destruction from hurricane Floyd, mostly in the inland counties that suffered from rising water after heavy rains. Thousands of homes were flooded, and many of these were houses that were located in flood zones, in flood plains that had not previously been recognized even as flood plains. So we need to do a better job of flood plain mapping, because the flood zone levels change over time. We need to relocate homes that are in jeopardy of being flooded repeatedly from hurricane disasters.”
Driving during a hurricane is not a good idea. Jay Barnes describes what happened when hurricane Floyd hit North Carolina in 1999.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people tried to move about during the hurricane, driving their cars down flooded roads. And a large number of the deaths were people who were swept off of roads in their vehicles. And it’s really a strong message that our emergency management officials are trying to get out right now is that driving across flooded highways is one of the leading causes of death in a hurricane.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.