Apr 22, 2009 5:41 pm US/Eastern
Emergency Managers Prepare For Hurricane Season
REISTERSTOWN, Md. (WJZ) ―
It's become a rite of spring, and it's designed to save lives.
Alex DeMetrick reports emergency managers from throughout Maryland are preparing for some of the worst weather nature can dish out.
It's as spring turns to summer, the storm door opens to hurricane season.
Maryland's emergency managers met Wednesday to be briefed on what might be coming and learn lessons from others who have endured severe storms.
The state's geography makes Maryland very vulnerable.
"Very vulnerable to hurricanes and tropical storms, so we can never let our guard down. We always have to be prepared," said Richard Muth, director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
Satellites and powerful computer modeling have gone a long way in helping to prepare, but damage from big storms is still far from exact. Last year, storm surge devastated Galveston during Hurricane Ike.
So those who issue the warnings are now re-working who will be most vulnerable to storm surges based on elevations. That's because smaller storms can sometimes create greater surges than big storms.
It happened in the Chesapeake even after Hurricane Isabel weakened into a tropical storm. Even after a direct hit, there is still plenty of punch left in tropical storms.
The National Weather Service doesn't issue a hurricane forecast until May, although other researchers are predicting 12 named storms, with eight of them becoming hurricanes.
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