Disaster

Hurricane season is here and as usual we are busy at the Red Cross. This season is forecasted to be as busy as last year, and our motto is “prepare for the worst and hope for the best”. While we can’t control Mother Nature, we do have some control over our own readiness. You can prepare for this storm season by following these tips:

Find Out What Could Happen to You

Contact your local Red Cross chapter or emergency management office before a disaster occurs--be prepared to take notes.
Ask what types of disasters are most likely to happen. Request information on how to prepare for each.
Learn about your community's warning signals: what they sound like and what you should do when you hear them.
Don’t forget to make a plan for your pets! We all love our pets but, they are not allowed inside emergency shelters because of health regulations.
Find out how to help elderly or disabled persons if needed.
Find out about the disaster plans at your workplace, your children's school or day care center, and other places where your family spends time.

Create a Disaster Plan

Meet with your family and discuss why you need to prepare for disaster. Explain the dangers of fire and severe weather to children. Plan to share responsibilities and work together as a team.
Discuss the types of disasters that are most likely to happen. Explain what to do in each case.
Pick two places to meet:

Right outside your home in case of a sudden emergency, like a fire.
Outside your neighborhood in case you can't return home. Everyone must know the address and phone number.

Ask an out-of-state friend to be your "family contact." After a disaster, it's often easier to call long distance. Other family members should call this person and tell them where they are. Everyone must know your contact's phone number.
Discuss what to do in an evacuation. Plan how to take care of your pets.
Show each family member how and when to turn off the utilities (water, gas, and electricity) at the main switches.
Check if you have adequate insurance coverage.
Stock emergency supplies and assemble a disaster supplies kit with non-perishable food, water, medicines, baby supplies, a first aid kit, etc…
Take a Red Cross first aid and CPR class.
Determine the best escape routes from your home. Find two ways out of each room.
Find the safe places in your home for each type of disaster.
Replace stored water and stored food every six months.

More preparedness information is available on our national website at www.redcross.org and can also be obtained by calling our local Red Cross chapter at 334-749-9981. We also offer disaster training classes free to the public if you are interested in volunteering with Red Cross disaster relief efforts. The best time to train is now, before the disaster occurs and we always need help. You can chose to respond nationally or to help on a local level.

The Red Cross is an agency of the people and if we all stick together we can provide the readiness and response our community needs to get through this hurricane season.

The American Red Cross responds to disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and fires, or other situations that cause human suffering or create human needs that those affected cannot alleviate without assistance. It is an independent, humanitarian, voluntary organization, not a government agency.

Red Cross Recognizes the potential threat of the following disasters in Alabama:

Flood
Flooding occurs in known floodplains when prolonged rainfall over several days, intense rainfall over a short period of time, or an ice or debris jam causes a river or stream to overflow and flood the surrounding area. Melting snow can combine with rain in the winter and early spring; severe thunderstorms can bring heavy rain in the spring and summer; or tropical cyclones can bring intense rainfall to the coastal and inland states in the summer and fall.

Flash floods occur within six hours of a rain event, or after a dam or levee failure, or following a sudden release of water held by an ice or debris jam, and flash floods can catch people unprepared. You will not always have a warning that these deadly, sudden floods are coming. So if you live in areas prone to flash floods, plan now to protect your family and property.

Floods are among the most frequent and costly natural disasters in terms of human hardship and economic loss. As much as 90 percent of the damage related to all natural disasters (excluding droughts) is caused by floods and associated debris flows.

HAZMAT (Hazardous Materials)
HAZMAT is an abbreviation for 'hazardous materials.' Hazardous materials are substances which due to their biological, chemical, or physical nature, pose a potential risk to life, health or the enviornment. Hazardous materials can be solids, liquids or gases and may be transported in a variety of containers. They are transported daily through Lee County by railroad, pipeline, roadway and over the county by aircraft. A HAZMAT incident can range form a small fuel spill on the highway to a major leak from a storage facility which might have lasting effects on neighboring communities.

Severe Thunderstorms
The National Weather Service (NWS) considers a thunderstorm severe if:

When a sever thunderstorm WARNING is issued, review what actions to take under a tornado warning or a flash flood warning. Keep in mind that thunderstorms may occur singly, in clusters, or in lines. Some of the most severe weather occurs when a single thunderstorm affects one location for an extended time. Lightning is a major threat during a thunderstorm. It is the lightning that produces thunder in a thunderstorm. Lightning is very unpredictable, which increases the risk to individuals and property. Downbursts and straight-line winds associated with thunderstorms can produce winds 100 to 150 miles per hour, enough to flip cars, vans, and semi-trucks. The resulting damage can equal the damage of most tornadoes.

Tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes have rotating winds of 250 miles per hour or more. They are capable of causing extreme destruction, including uprooting trees and well-made structures, and turning normally harmless objects into deadly missiles. Most tornadoes are just a few dozen yards wide and only briefly touch down, but highly destructive violent tornadoes may carve out paths over a mile wide and more than 50 miles long. Although violent tornadoes comprise only 2 percent of all tornadoes, they are responsible for nearly 70 percent of tornado-related fatalities.

Tornadoes develop from severe thunderstorms in warm, moist, unstable air along and ahead of cold fronts. Such thunderstorms also may generate large hail and damaging winds. When intense springtime storms systems produce large, persistent areas that support tornado development, major outbreaks can occur.

Landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes also generate tornadoes. Such tornadoes are most common to the right and ahead of the storm path or the storm center as it comes ashore.

More and more people are making their homes in woodland settings in or near forests, rural areas, or remote mountain sites. There, homeowners enjoy the beauty of the enviornment but face the very real danger of wildfire. Wildfires often begin unnoticed. They spread quickly, igniting brush, trees, and homes.