Season of no excuses has come

Tag : Raincoat Material


Record-shattering floods in the Midwest. A record-breaking rash oftornadoes all across the country. Wildfires scorching California.And in Aspen, ski slopes have reopened because of a weird Junesnowfall.

Okay, I get the hint. Nature is running amok. Time to get seriousabout this hurricane season.

When I moved to Florida in 1984, there seemed to be widespreadnonchalance about hurricane season. It came. It went. Yawn.

People didn't make hurricane kits. Couples didn't buy themselves agenerator for Christmas. A weather radio? Say what?

That's why, in September 1985, I found myself without even araincoat when the threatening presence of Hurricane Elena off thewest coast of Florida led to the first countywide evacuation inPinellas history and several days of wind, rain and hard lessons.These days, there is really no excuse not to be prepared forhurricane season.

In the wake of Hurricanes Andrew, Charley, Jeanne, Katrina andothers, it seems that every institution in our society leaps tohelp us prepare. Government, the media, retailers, the health careindustry, financial institutions, the construction industry, theinsurance industry, nonprofits and our relatives in areas notsubject to hurricane winds are there to remind us, "Hey, it's June.Time to get ready!"

With much of the nation struggling under the lash of bizarreweather, perhaps this is a year to be particularly diligent abouthurricane preparations, and to do it now, even though the typicalpeak of hurricane season here isn't until September.

Inventory your supplies. Make a list of what you need. Put a littlegas in the car and drive to the closest hardware or building supplystore to stock up.

Remember, you can't wait until the storm is here to get ready.Stores will close. Roads will be jammed. Banks and ATMs won't beavailable. The electricity may go out.

Don't know what you should do? Not to worry. There are lots of waysto find out. One is the Hurricane Guide published by thisnewspaper. The guide already has been distributed to St. Petersburg Times home subscribers, but you can also find it on the weather page ofour Web site, tampabay.com. The guide contains instructions forpreparing your home and your family for a hurricane or tropicalstorm, whether you ride out the storm here or evacuate.

If you have a computer, there is a wealth of information online.Check your local government Web site. City and county governmentsin Pinellas are boosting the information available on their sites.One of the best is pinellascounty.org. Click on the HurricanePreparedness link. It will take you to the emergency management Webpage, which is loaded with information about how to prepare andwhat to do if a hurricane strikes.

Also on the county Web site are reminders and instructions aboutregistration procedures if you should need to evacuate to aspecial-needs shelter or if you want to go with your pet to one ofthe shelters that allows pets. You should not plan to just show upat those shelters on the day of the storm.

Retailers have created Web sites to help you, too — with, ofcourse, a little advertising on the side. Publix.com/storm, forexample, has material on preparing for the storm, weathering theworst of it and then recovering. Similar material is available athomedepot.com/ hurricane and at lowes.com.

I did a lot of preparation work last year, so this year I am justreplacing bottled water and outdated food items and batteries. Ialso decided to buy a weather alert radio this year. It will givean audible alarm, even at night, if dangerous weather isapproaching. I still remember that the order to evacuate Pinellasin 1985 came late at night after many people were asleep.

Oh, and my raincoat is hanging in the closet.