As the Texas Gulf region gets ready to grapple with an early season whopper of a weather system, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is telling residents to gear up in case similar conditions bear down on the Bay State.
With hurricanes becoming more frequent and intense as the oceans grow warmer, and this year expected to have an above-average (as in more than 14) number of named severe storms, Healey is proclaiming that July 7 through July 13 is “Hurricane Preparedness Week” in Massachusetts, warning that the time to get ready for dangerous weather is now.
“During Hurricane Preparedness Week, I urge all residents to take stock of their emergency supplies and to plan and prepare ahead of peak hurricane season. Near-record warm ocean temperatures are expected to fuel more frequent and intense tropical storms, meaning there may be increased likelihood for us in Massachusetts to experience a hurricane,” Healey said.
Throughout the week, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency will step up messaging and offer information on what residents and municipalities should do in the lead up to, during, and after a severe weather event. This is the second year that the governor has made such a proclamation.
Healey’s announcement comes as Tropical Storm Beryl, downgraded from its height as a Category 5 hurricane, bears down on the Gulf of Mexico region of Texas.
Texas officials warned the storm would cause power outages and flooding but also expressed worry that not enough coastal residents and beach vacationers in Beryl’s path were heeding warnings to leave.
“One of the things that kind of trigger our concern a little bit, we’ve looked at all of the roads leaving the coast and the maps are still green,” said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is serving as the state’s acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is travelling overseas. “So we don’t see many people leaving.”
Although Beryl remained a tropical storm Sunday as it churned toward Texas, it threatened to potentially regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall early Monday. The storm was projected to come ashore in the middle of the Texas coast around Matagorda Bay, an area about 100 miles south of Houston, but officials cautioned the path could still change.
The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean on its way to Texas. The storm ripped off doors, windows and roofs with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic’s record warmth.
Three times in its one week of life, Beryl has gained 35 mph in wind speed in 24 hours or less, the official weather service definition of rapid intensification.
Beryl’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm shows the literal hot water of the Atlantic and Caribbean, and what the Atlantic hurricane belt can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.
Massachusetts Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy said his teams practice at responding in extreme weather scenarios and that you should too, especially if “you live or work within an evacuation zone.”
“Now is the time to plan where you would go and how you would get there if a tropical system were to impact Massachusetts. Our state and local emergency management agencies regularly plan and train to respond to hurricanes and other severe weather hazards, and I encourage all residents and visitors in Massachusetts to do the same,” he said.
Low lying parts of the state are especially vulnerable to storm damage, but the impacts of an ocean-based weather system can be felt far from the shore, according to Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, the former mayor of Salem.
“While areas along the coast are more likely to sustain damage from hurricane hazards such as high winds and storm surge, we know from experience that tropical storms can impact areas across the state, both on the coast and inland,” Driscoll said.
Ahead of “Hurricane Preparedness Week,” MEMA distributed “a multilingual hurricane preparedness toolkit” to town and city officials tasked with emergency management and partnered with MassDOT to add preparedness messaging on digital billboards and MBTA buses.
The state has been lucky recently, but that luck will run out eventually, according to MEMA Director Dawn Brantley.
“We were fortunate last September when Hurricane Lee tracked offshore as it approached Massachusetts, but this once again highlighted the need for us to be prepared. Every household should have an emergency kit and a plan inclusive of all members’ needs and abilities,” she said.
Information about which parts of the state are evacuation zones can be found at www.mass.gov/knowyourzone.
