It’s officially Hurricane season, Houston. Starting now, and for the next six months, we Houstonians keep tabs on tropical storms developing in the Gulf and prepare for the possibility that any could make landfall.
The last few years have been relatively quiet on the tropical storm front, which would normally leave public officials concerned about Houstonians becoming complacent and potentially unprepared for a possible storm. But after last week’s severe weather and flooding, most of us don’t really need the official start of the season to remind us of the impact severe storms can have.
We offer some of the usual preparedness reminders, but we also learn about some other ways our region readies itself in case of disaster.
We talk with Carol Flores from the Houston Interfaith Disaster Response Alliance. She’s also the 2015 chair of the Texas Gulf Coast Regional VOAD. (VOAD stands for Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster — it’s a group of nonprofits that have a plan to work together and share information and resources in times of emergency). We also talk with Cameron Waldner, the CEO of Volunteer Houston.
Then, News 88.7’s Dave Fehling reports on the sort of hurricane season we might expect, and we welcome your questions for Dave Gorham, Senior Meteorologist with the weather service provider StormGeo.