2018 National Hurricane Conference: Exhausted. Seasoned. Proud.

2018 Hurricane Conference underway in Orlando; new director announced

ORLANDO, Fla. – I have been going to these conferences off and on for more than 30 years and how things have changed.  It’s a whole different group of attendees, more emergency managers, FEMA, and the NHC. 

Basically, less media and much more about intergovernmental communication and response before during and especially after the storm.

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This all started with Katrina and the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons where the rather slow response was sharply criticized.

But all that changed. And now it is all about response especially after the 2016 and 2017 hurricane seasons.

Aren’t we all somewhat exhausted? If you had lost count, just last fall, the United States was impacted by three category 4 hurricanes over a 26 day period. 

Yep, Harvey, Irma and Maria all happened within 26 days of each other.

The destructive power of these storms left millions in the dark, some for months. There were hundreds of thousands left homeless from inland flooding thanks to hurricane Harvey.

Maria, destroyed a multitude of islands in the Caribbean, devastating Puerto Rico.  This lead to one of the the greatest sustained air and sea lift operations ever, including the largest communications and power restoration in history.

Irma left her mark up and down the entire state of Florida, both coasts experienced winds that gusted over 100 mph and storm surge that impacted from the Keys to the Carolina’s, including our massive surge in downtown Jacksonville.

Yet, despite all these storms, it appears no one on the mainland of the United States died from storm surge.

Why? Great communication and greatly reduced evacuations notices due to much greater precision in forecasting.

The assessment of the forecasting skill from the National Hurricane Center reached a record best just as all these storms unleashed.

Certainly this has lead to a more seasoned group and one that has a new leader in Ken Graham, the recently announced director of the National Hurricane Center. Ken, an experienced forecaster from Louisiana, like Florida , a hot spot for hurricanes and flooding events.

In my next article we will discuss where the National Hurricane Center is going next.