As Hurricane Bill spins harmlessly out to sea in the Atlantic, the storm served an important reminder: It's August and the hurricane season is upon us. Bill intensified last week into a Category-4 tropical storm, packing winds in excess of 130 mph. Thankfully, the storm missed most of the East Coast. Still, its surge caused rogue waves in Maine that carried 20 people offshore and killed one person.
Though NOAA has downgraded the 2009 hurricane season from earlier predictions, we all need to be prepared for intense tropical storms in the coming weeks and months.
Reason: The last time NOAA predicted a "near-normal hurricane season" was in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast as a major storm and was followed shortly thereafter by Hurricane Rita (also a Category-4 storm when it hit the Texas/Louisiana coastline).
Heart to Heart is ramping up preparation efforts for the coming hurricane season. Hopefully, we won't need to deploy any of these resources. Just in case, though, we're calling on you to help us be as ready as possible.
Here are four things you can do today to support our readiness activities:
We appreciate anything you can do to help. Feel free to contact us about other ways to support our crisis-response initiatives. Your support helps us create a healthier world -- one community at a time.