Weather providers scrambled to keep North Carolina residents updated during hurricane season as tropical storm Karen moved towards the state Monday.
The major agency responsible for monitoring hurricane and tropical storm paths is the National Hurricane Center—a division of the National Weather Service—which has remained closed since the Oct. 1 government shutdown. Agencies more local to the Triangle, including the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, have been more active in providing information to residents through different media. For the Atlantic coast, hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
“When it comes to storms, we monitor the weather very closely—we even have our own meteorologists—and coordinate with the staff at the Raleigh National Weather Service Office,” said Julia Jarema, communications officer of emergency management at NCDPS.
The division works to keep residents up to date on dangerous local weather and what safety precautions should be taken through news and social media.
“When we know there is a good chance for severe weather, we send information to the news media and post on social media platforms to remind people how to be safe,” Jarema said.
Tropical storm Karen was supposed to head north through Florida to North Carolina, but dissipated along the Gulf Coast. Although North Carolina remained out of harm’s way, agencies reporting the weather are still concerned about properly informing citizens of the dangers that tropical storms and hurricanes can pose.
“The biggest problem we face is that people don’t think the hurricane will impact them, for example, because they are too far inland or don’t understand the power of hurricanes, and think the lower category storms won’t cause that much damage,” said Jarema, who explained that the state’s worst storm on record in terms of damage costs was a category 2 hurricane in 1999 that caused 66 regions to flood in NC counties.
The American Red Cross Triangle Area Chapter has developed several smartphone applications that are designed to help people stay current with hurricane and tropical storm coverage in the region, said Lu Esposito, the regional communications officer of the chapter.
“It’s important to be safe all the time,” Esposito said. “Most residents of the Triangle don’t know what to do during a hurricane because they are so rare, but they are very dangerous and it is important to know what to do.”
Some of the mobile applications provided by the Red Cross include shelter finders, first aid help and tornado and hurricane information.
The University’s protocol for approaching storms is focused on student safety.
Emergency Coordinator Kyle Cavanaugh said that the University has direct contact with the NWS as well as privately contracted meteorologists.
“If any severe weather is predicted for our area, a dedicated severe weather team is placed on notice and starts to initiate plans depending upon the timing and severity,” Cavanaugh said.
Duke provides severe weather updates to students through the Duke Alert System, which utilizes texts, emails, web site updates and sirens.
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