Hurricane forecasters are predicting the current hurricane season to be especially active this year, with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasting 12 to 15 tropical storms to form during the season that begins June 1 and ends November 30.
Of those storms, six to eight are predicted to become hurricanes. Dr. William Gray, the renowned hurricane forecaster located at Colorado State University, and his team that form the Tropical Meteorology Project, have estimated that the risk of a category 3 or higher hurricane striking the U.S East Coast, including Florida, is 48 percent this year, while the U.S. Gulf Coast, including the Florida Panhandle, has a 38 percent chance of having a category 3 or higher storm making landfall this season. This relatively high probability of encountering a major storm in the next few months means that NOW is an
excellent time to examine your agency’s disaster plan.
Agencies conduct disaster planning to accomplish three major goals:
1. To protect lives and minimize property losses;
2. To provide for the rapid resumption of operations and services;
3. To ensure that adequate records and documentation is maintained to aid in post-disaster cost recovery activities.
For natural disasters such as hurricanes, agencies typically use four loss control strategies
in their overall planning and response:
1. Mitigation
2. Preparation
3. Response
4. Recovery
The first two strategies, mitigation and planning, occur before the disaster occurs. The second two strategies, response and recovery, occur after the disaster has occurred. A comprehensive disaster plan will incorporate all of these strategies.
Mitigation
Hazard mitigation concentrates on long-term methods to reduce the effects of a hazard by improving the agency’s ability to withstand future hazards. In order to mitigate hazards effectively, an agency should address mitigation measures through planning, policy making, and implementation. Mitigation may be.......
