It’s been a pretty eventful week. Last Tuesday, we experienced a rare and slightly unnerving earthquake, immediately followed by the biggest hurricane to hit this region since Isabel in 2003. I’m glad it’s too early for a blizzard, but the way things have been going, I may be over-optimistic.
I used multiple media sources to keep an eye on Irene. One of the best is the National Hurricane Center (NHC), which provided (and as of 5 a.m. this morning still was providing) the latest on the storm’s present and future movements. NHC is the source for much of the data re-disseminated by national, regional, and local weather outlets, so using its Web site really gets you right to the heart of forecasting when you really want the latest and most authoritative information on hurricanes, tropical storms (TS), and tropical depressions (TD). At first glance, I did feel a certain depression myself when I checked in with the NHC this morning – the first thing I saw was a map showing TS Jose and TD Twelve. Fortunately, Jose seems destined to zip off into the further reaches of the North Atlantic and dissolve, while poor TD Twelve, lacking even a cool name beginning with K, hasn’t shaped up into anything much – yet. Things could change, though, so I think I’ll keep on checking…
Although most of us around the DC area escaped any major damage, the reports of heavy going along the coast and flooding in Vermont should remind us to take hurricane warnings seriously. I read a news story quoting a former NHC head, who said his worst case scenario is a hurricane that does much less damage than advertised, followed by a really deadly one – because the public will refuse to take the warning seriously the second time around. We tend to forget quickly in these multimedia news-saturated days, but we should remember the colossal disaster that was Katrina. If you need a reminder, reports from the White House and Congress are still available online – and in print, here and here.
I, for one, plan to keep a wary eye on both the NHC and Earthquake Hazard Program Web sites. That way, I’ve got earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, ice storms, and heat waves covered. After the events of the past week, I’m convinced that anythingcan happen!
govbooktalk
Trudy Hawkins
Government Book Talk 
For Informations Free Of Charges, Lot of are distributed and tools available too for the US-Canada Zone …
The FEMA distributed resources to explain the Attitudes and Thinks to remember in case of Damages and a list of Documents to save the firs needed informations for Person searches and Insurance administrative tasks and tips … A Model of document to save the serial numbers of the Devices You can have at home … Lot of prespricptions that does not seem to be usefull when not confronted to such Disgrace …
Some Windows Desktop Widgets are also available for who are interreted in about the earthquakes activities and more …
Reminder and Links :
http://www.noaa.gov/
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/
http://ptwc.weather.gov/
http://www.tsunami.noaa.gov/
http://earthshots.usgs.gov/
Widgets for Hurricane purposes :
NOAA Widget for US Hurricane Tracking :
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=866fcff9-949a-47ae-9bb5-ecab8ed76e6d&bt=1&pl=1
NOAA Widget for Puerto-Rico Zone :
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=fe970d1d-e874-4001-86f2-699f76109f8d&bt=1&pl=1
Hope Every thing would be OK for US Citizens …
God Protects all of US…
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Whew! My neighborhood was lucky. Never lost power, no damage to our house.
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Thank you for keeping me informed. American citizens often do not know what information is available free of charge or how to access it.
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