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When a hurricane passes
through, is it true I should have the windows open on the side of my house
that faces the wind?
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No. Hurricane winds
swirl from all directions and exert both pressure and suction.
If wind gets into your home, it will seek a way out, blowing out a
roof or ceiling, collapsing a gable end or a garage door. Your goal is
to keep the wind out, period. |
Does taping my windows with
masking or duct tape help?
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No. It doesn't keep
your windows from breaking and it just takes time from other, more
useful tasks as you prepare your home. What it will do is leave
your window with a gooky residue that's difficult to scrape off.
You don't need another cleanup chore once the storm passes.
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Is it true that the county
will send someone to evacuate me?
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As we learned during the
2004 Hurricane season, when the storm is bearing down on us, county
emergency operations personnel will decline to send out rescue teams -
"first responders" - into a life-threatening storm.
Lesson to learn: Evacuate when you're told to. The harder it is
for you to leave (if you are elderly, mobility-impaired or require
complicated medical equipment), the sooner you should evacuate. |
Can I reuse the sandbags I
got last hurricane season?
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Generally, yes.
Store them in a dry spot indoors perhaps in a shed or garage. The bags
ay deteriorate or become moldy if exposed to sun, water and insects. |
How long can I keep bottled
water? I still have some from last summer.
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That depends on who
bottled it. If you refilled a water bottle from the office
cooler or the home tap, it is best consumed within two weeks if refrigerated
or within a day it has been standing at room temperature. If it
was bottled commercially, it is good indefinitely, even if there is an
expiration date on the bottle. Some states require expiration
dates on all packaged foods, so some water bottlers put them on all
their bottles, even those shipped to states that don't require them. |
What are the hurricane
standards for new homes in the Tampa Bay area today?
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Florida code as of 2002 requires
that buildings must be designed to withstand differentials that occur
when windows and doors are pierced by debris, or that all exterior
glass windows and doors be made of shatter-resistant glass or be
protected by shutters. |
Is there any place in a
house or apartment that's safer than others for valuables?
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The dishwasher if a good
place if you don't have a personal safe. Dishwashers are
anchored to cabinets and plumbing, they are waterproof and they have
doors that lock. |
Why are hurricanes named?
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Tropical cyclones - the
proper name for hurricanes - are named to provide ease of
communication between forecasters and the public. The storms
often last a week or longer and more than one can occur at the same
time in the same area. The first use of a proper name for a
tropical cyclone was by an Australian forecaster, who named tropical
after politicians he didn't like. The weatherman could publicly
describe a politician as "causing great distress" or
"wandering aimlessly about in the Pacific". During World War
II, tropical cyclones were given women's names by U.S. Army Air Forces
and Navy meteorologists', and were named after meteorologists'
girlfriends or wives. From 1950 to 1952, tropical cyclones of
the North Atlantic Ocean were identified by the phonetic alphabet,
such as Able, Baker, or Charlie, but in 1953 the U.S. Weather Bureau
switched to women's names. Gender parity didn't come until 1979, when
the World Meteorological Organization and the U.S. National Weather
Service switched to a list of names that included men's names. |
What will hurricanes be
named in 2007?
| Andrea, Barry, Chantal,
Dean, Erin, Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo,
Melissa, Noel, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van, Wendy |
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