USA Today spoke with National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan about what to do to prepare for the hurricane season that begins on June 1st.
NOAA predicts at least three hurricanes this season
NOAA predicts three major hurricanes in the 2025 hurricane season.
Although trauma Hurricane Helen could not foresee how traumatic Hurricane Helen would look for many in many states, it highlights exactly why he is the director of the National Hurricane Centre, with personal preparations for the hurricane season that begins on June 1st.
The biggest thing people need to know is their own risks, including storms, winds, torrential rains, floods, tornadoes and rifts, regardless of how much they live from where tropical storms and hurricanes land, Brennan says. Helen and his aftermath killed 248 people and caused nearly $80 billion in damage, but it clearly demonstrated how destruction occurs inland or far from landfall.
“Preparing for a hurricane season is to know the risks and start a hurricane season is to prepare for what that risk is and how it exists for you,” Brennan said in a chat with USA Today about what people need to know when the season begins.
If he can talk to each of the more than 200 million people in the US who are facing hurricane risks, he reminds him to stay focused on them.
Here are 8 things Brennan wants you to remember:
Know if you live in a high tide zone and then plan ahead
If you live in a high surge zone, evacuation must be the basis for your hurricane preparation plan, Brennan said. To find out if you live in an evacuation zone, consult your local government website.
It is important to understand that you don’t need to drive hundreds of miles to escape the dangers of rapidly rising seawater. Most of the time, you can only drive a few dozen miles and get out of the storm surge evacuation zone. “If you feel like you have to drive for hours in your car and drive for hours to get anywhere you’ve never seen before, it makes evacuation much more manageable.”
In advance, ask friends or relatives who live nearby. Another option is to “plan to go to a safe hotel that stays away from the threat of a storm, where you can ride the storm and deal with the aftermath.”
Start planning now for your pet, elderly relatives, and what to do for your medical device, medical conditions, or other people who may have special needs.
Understand the risks of flooding
Floods have little to do with how strong the storm is from a wind perspective, Brennan said. “We don’t need any major hurricanes or even hurricanes to cause life-threatening rainfall or flooding.
“There’s no need to even rain where you are,” he said. It can just rain heavily somewhere upstream and if you’re in the waterway, that water can rise and flood you from your home.
“Freshwater flooding caused by rain has killed more people in the United States in tropical storms and hurricanes over the past nine or ten years,” he said. “Helen is an unfortunate example of that,” he said of the 175 people who died as a direct result of Helen’s winds and rain, 95 people lost their lives due to freshwater floods.
If you live in a flood-prone area and live inland along streams or streams, make an evacuation plan for you and your family if you are threatened.
Please take out flood insurance. Remember that homeowners’ insurance generally does not cover flood damage.
Don’t judge one storm by previous storms
If you think you’ve seen the worst of living from floods and winds, it’s “almost not the worst in the positive,” Brennan said. “What you see can be just a small part of what can actually happen. Do not respond or make your response to evacuation based on what happened during the last storm.
“Make each storm a natural and don’t compare,” he said. You can feel very similar storms on similar trucks, but it can make a huge difference in what happens in where you live, between different times and different conditions of the year.
“There were many people who died in Hurricane Katrina along the Mississippi coast because they survived Camille. “You don’t want to be a victim of a past storm by preparing and not taking action when another storm threatens you.”
Don’t delay preparation
“All the most powerful hurricanes that hit the US formed and landed within three or four days,” Brennan said. “Even Helen started landing from tropical depression within three or four days of rapid intensification last year.”
He said he is now making that plan for yourself and your family. “In just a few days, the storm can actually develop and be threatened. It’s not the time to develop your hurricane plan. It’s when you want to put it into practice.”
Don’t focus on seasonal outlook
“If you’re in a hurricane-prone area, you need to prepare each year, whether you’re expecting to be below average or above average, and that risk lies for everyone each year,” he said. “Last year there were three hurricane landings in Florida, five along the Gulf Coast. Since 2017, there have been 25 hurricane landings in the US.”
Beware of danger, not categories
“We have a lot of products to tell people what the risks are from wind, storm surges and heavy rain flooding,” Brennan said. “The combination of these dangers can vary from storms to storms, to locations within the same storm to locations. You really have to dig deeper and find that information.”
A slow-moving tropical storm can cause fatal flooding without becoming a hurricane, and a fast-moving storm like Helen can carry much higher winds inland.
“Storms landing along the Gulf Coast can cause dangerous flooding in the Mid-Atlantic, as we saw with IDA in 2021,” he said. Ida landed in Louisiana, but most of the deaths were hundreds of miles from landfall in New York and New Jersey a few days later from freshwater floods.
Find a reliable source
“Look where you can find authoritative information in terms of evacuation and other safety information,” Brennan said. “Now, make these decisions before the storm.” Find trustworthy media, local national weather services offices, state and local government officials, and follow them on social media.
Don’t forget to plan after the storm
When deciding whether to evacuate or not, think about what life will look like after a storm. Does anyone in your home rely on electricity for medical devices, or can you keep your medicine refrigerated? Do you have a generator and know how to use it safely?
Over the past nine or ten years, “We have lost almost as many people in these indirect deaths. Many of them are due to dangerous environments, including loss of electricity. Medical devices fail. Heat causes fatalities. In many cases, the first responder cannot reach someone with a medical emergency.
One of the biggest causes of death after the storm was a vehicle accident, he said. “When you are asked to leave, it’s about keeping you safe from the storm spikes and other effects of the storm. It’s about keeping you safe after the storm.”
USA Today’s national correspondent, Dinah Voyles Pulver, writes about hurricanes, violent weather and other environmental issues. Contact her at dpulver @usatoday.com or @dinahvp.
