The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins in only a few short weeks—June 1. If you didn’t know already, this week (May 7-13) is National Hurricane Preparedness Week.

As a little background, in 2004, National Hurricane Preparedness Week in the United States replaced the previous observance of National Hurricane Awareness Week, as awareness does not equate to preparedness.1 National Hurricane Preparedness Week is a nationwide effort to inform the public about hurricane hazards and to disseminate knowledge which can be used to prepare and take action.2

Each day of Hurricane Preparedness Week addresses a specific hurricane related topic. Here are this year’s topics:3

  • Sunday, May 7th- Determine your risk
  • Monday, May 8th- Develop an evacuation plan
  • Tuesday, May 9th- Assemble disaster supplies
  • Wednesday, May 10th- Secure an insurance check-up
  • Thursday, May 11th- Strengthen your home
  • Friday, May 12th- Check on Your Neighbor
  • Saturday, May 13th- Complete your written hurricane plan

In addition to developing an evacuation plan, assembling supplies, and preparing a written hurricane plan, now is a good time to review your insurance policies to confirm and verify coverage and discuss any other necessary or available coverage with your insurance agent or other representative.

Further, this week NOAA is providing “Hurricane Awareness Tours” where they are covering 2,200 miles in seven days:4

Tours are an opportunity for NOAA and its partner agencies to visit locations along the coasts that could be impacted by hurricanes. At each location, NOAA’s National Weather Service and partner agencies teach visitors about weather safety and preparedness. And at each location along the tour, folks can even take a look at one of the Hurricane Hunter airplanes and meet the pilots who fly into the storms to gather data. This year NOAA is partnering with the USAF Reserve, FEMA and FLASH, as well as many local partners, to bring the 2017 Hurricane Awareness Tours to locations in the Atlantic and Pacific Basins.

For my fellow Florida residents, there is still time to check out one of the Hurricane Awareness tours on May 11th in Orlando or May 12th in Miami.
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1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hurricane_Preparedness_Week
2 Id.
3 http://www.weather.gov/wrn/hurricane-preparedness
4 Id.