Hurricane Preparedness Checklist — 2011
Food For The Poor’s warehouse in Coconut Creek, Florida is stacked to the rafters with emergency relief supplies for this year’s hurricane season.
“As we do every year, we are preparing for the worst and praying for the best,” said Angel Aloma, Food For The Poor’s executive director.
Our hurricane preparedness checklist includes a warehouse stockpile of generators, blankets, lanterns, stoves, food and more ready to go. We are prepared to pre-position some supplies and to provide emergency relief immediately after a disaster has taken place. Taking these measures before a typical storm hits Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica or one of the many islands in the Caribbean, enables Food for the Poor to expedite emergency relief rapidly.
To find out more information about Hurricane Preparedness or to make a donation to help our cause, please Contact Us.
FAST FACTS FOR HURRICANE SEASON
Hurricanes are classified by wind strength known as the Saffir / Simpson Scale in the following categories:
- Category 1 - has winds of 74-95 mph
- Category 2 - has winds of 96-110 mph
- Category 3 - has winds of 111-130 mph
- Category 4 - has winds of 131-155 mph
- Category 5 - has winds of 156 mph & up
Food For The Poor is ready to rush emergency aid and hurricane supplies to storm victims. We have stockpiles of generators, blankets, lanterns, stoves, and more supplies ready to go.
Forecasters have predicted a busy storm season for 2010, after a relatively quiet year in 2009. In 2008, the Caribbean was hit hard by storms and hurricanes. Haiti was devastated by four storms in less than a month. The storms killed hundreds, left tens of thousands homeless, wiped out Haiti’s crops and destroyed entire towns.
Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project and his team have predicted 18 named storms, of tropical storm strength or greater, with 10 of those becoming hurricanes and five of those major hurricanes, of Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of at least 111 mph.
The team said the historical 1950-2000 average is 9.6, 5.9 and 2.3.
The team, as have other prognosticators, cites much warmer-than-normal surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and a fading or already-gone El Niño.
“We have increased our forecast from early April, due to a combination of a transition from El Niño to current neutral conditions and the continuation of unusually warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures,” Gray said.
While Gray never says how many or where storms will strike, he said he and his colleagues “anticipate a well above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall.”
