NEWS

It's been 61 years since the last major hurricane, now's the time to prepare for the next

Michael Holtzman
mholtzman@heraldnews.com
A small but attentive crowd at the Marine Museum Monday night to hear experts talk about New England's hurricane history and preparedness.

FALL RIVER — The audience was sparse but the message was powerful.

It’s been 61 years since New England’s last major hurricane — Carol, a Category 3 — and no storm with winds at least 74 miles an hour has hit our region and shores since Hurricane Bob, a Category 1, in 1991.

But the frequency in prior decades shows “we’re due for a hurricane” — and few individuals or families are ready, said Glenn Field, National Weather Service meteorologist in Taunton, during a two-hour program Monday night at the Marine Museum.

He showed how in 1954 and Carol hit with the nation’s costliest storm on record and winds greater than 110 miles an hour, in Connecticut alone 364,000 people were displaced and 60 percent of the hospitals remained closed a month later.

A major hurricane — 111-155 miles an hour plus for a Category 5 — can cause tens of billions of damage, not counting all the losses of life, said Field, who is the warning coordination meteorologist.

With September national hurricane preparedness month, Field and his NWS boss, Robert Thompson, led the program, equipped with a team of knowledgeable partners that included the Red Cross, Federal and Massachusetts Emergency Management Service and National Grid.

“Be informed, make a plan, build a kit, get involved,” was the MEMA message with a load of written materials available to about 30 persons in attendance, including Mayor Sam Sutter for part of it. Nearly half were associated with the program.

When Field said that Sandy three years ago “doesn’t count as a hurricane” since it was basically a tropical storm that brushed this southeastern Massachusetts area, Sutter questioned the designation since it caused considerable damage.

Field also told the mayor his “personal opinion” that hurricanes “come in 20 to 30-year cycles” and have not shown to be highly impacted by global warming.

Since the goal of the program was preparedness, the NWS presenters showed with words, images and data how quickly conditions can change.

Hurricane Bob’s average speed was 33 miles an hour, but in Florida it was a third of that. The storm sat in the Bahamas until nearly 48 hours before striking southern New England, Field said.

Conditions even relatively close by can vary. Bob dropped a half-inch of rain on Cape Cod but seven inches on northern Rhode Island.

Hurricane Diane, a Category 3 in 1955, dumped 18 inches in one day on Westfield in western Massachusetts. That was half the annual rainfall, Field said.

Thompson concentrated on impacts of unanticipated storm surges, showing how the Mother of All Storms – Hurricane of 1938 – took 600 to 700 lives mostly from flooding. Waters pushing onto land “wiped out” the beach town of Misquamicut, Rhode Island, he said.

“Respect the power of the ocean,” Thompson said. “It’s beautiful, but it can be a lot of power.”

Several officials from the Marine Museum and its parent organization, Battleship Cove, spoke briefly about preparing for the dangers of a hurricane.

Maria Vann, hired as museum executive director, spoke of their role engaging and helping the public learn things of cultural history and with practical services.

Carl Sawejko, who is president of Battleship Cove’s Board of Directors and Swansea’s EMA coordinator, said programs like this one are important and have not been done frequently.

A couple of months ago a group of EMA coordinators visiting with NWS officials in Taunton decided to make this happen. It’s a matter of public awareness, Sawejko said.

He said the younger generation tied into Smart Phones would lose their Internet connections in short order during and after a hurricane. “It’s the first thing to go down in a major calamity,” he said.

That’s why FEMA’s fact sheet of knowing risks, preparing before the storm and as it approaches, when to evacuate, what to do if you can’t and recovering after the storm can be a road map when power fails for long periods.

Donald Vincent, FEMA program specialist with the agency’s new America’s PrepareAthon! program, asked the audience to turn on their Smart Phones and tie into ready.gov/prepare and Twitter and Face book pages for the NWS were also shared, along with written materials.

Other speakers included Michael McCallan, National Grid's director of emergency planning, who showed how the utility plans and responds to massive power outages; James Mannion, The EMA southeastern Massachusetts manager; Battleship Cove Executive Director Brad King, and Ellen Rossano, American Red Cross disaster manager for Massachusetts, who spoke about emergency shelters and safety rules.

Rossano said their hurricane preparedness program would be presented Tuesday night, July 28, at 7 p.m. July 28, at Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable, and Wednesday night, July 29, at 7 p.m. at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Bourne. Last week one was held in Newport.