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EMA: Prep early for hurricane season

• Albany-Dougherty County's deputy emergency management director gives public safety adivce and information.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — With the National Weather Service predicting 13 named storms and seven hurricanes this year, Albany-Dougherty Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Jim Vaught told Albany Rotarians Tuesday they should be developing emergency plans for the hurricane season.

While the predictions are likely to change before the season gets here in June, Vaught said there’s no reason Albany residents shouldn’t be prepared for the worst.

“The big thing is, it’s too late once the tornado, thunderstorm, hurricane gets here. You need to think about it (an emergency plan) ahead of time,” he said.

Vaught said Colorado State University forecaster William Gray is predicting seven hurricanes, three of which will be major.

While many Albany and Dougherty County residents may think they have a hurricane buffer zone because the county is farther inland, Vaught pointed out that several hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 hit the Gulf of Mexico and traveled farther inland.

Vaught pointed out that emergency plans should include escape routes, out-of- state contacts, post-emergency meeting places, an identified safe room, plans for pets, insurance coverage, first aid/ CPR training, a full gas tank and disaster supply kits.

Disaster kits should have enough supplies for a family to survive for 72 hours, he said.

Vaught covered a variety of topics at the meeting, from the role of the Albany-Dougherty EMA to the top four disasters Dougherty County residents face.

The most probable disaster for the county is drought, he said, with tornadoes, thunderstorms and hazardous materials completing the list.

Vaught also said that, because Albany is located in “Tornado Alley,” the city has been lucky with the past few storms because they branched off and the city avoided the worst of the inclement weather.

“We have been very fortunate the last couple of times that as the storm hits Albany, it splits,” he said. He “highly encouraged” the county’s residents to purchase National Weather Service weather radios to keep up with severe weather.

The deputy emergency management director went on to talk about a recently implemented program in which the National Weather Service holds a conference call with emergency management officials from Alabama, Georgia and Florida when there is a strong chance of a storm system doing significant damage.

He said the Albany- Dougherty EMA has participated in two such conference calls, though there haven’t been any seriously damaging storm systems to come through the city since the program started.

Vaught also discussed the new Code Red system, an automated reverse-911 system that calls Dougherty County residents who are in the path of severe weather to warn them of the approaching storms.

Phones that have blocking systems or unlisted numbers will prevent the system from calling those numbers, but Vaught said the city should have a form on its Web site within a few weeks to allow residents to opt into or out of the reverse calling system.

Vaught pointed out that there are 14 emergency shelters in Dougherty County and that Albany is set as the evacuation site if Florida’s panhandle is evacuated.

The locations are not made public, though, until a qualifying emergency occurs, in line with state policy, he said.

Albany’s Web site, http:// www.albany.ga.us, includes a number of resources, among them emergency planning advice and safety tips, Vaught said.

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