For s2k members in the Carolinas

[stormwriter]

The Charlotte Observer has a big package today about hurricane preparations in the Carolinas and what officials learned (hopefully) from last year.

Hurricane season begins: Are Carolinas ready?
Forecasters predict another rough season

SCOTT DODD
sdodd@charlotteobserver.com

You'd think the Carolinas -- with a long history of menacing hurricanes -- wouldn't need a reminder that storms can be deadly and devastating.

You'd be wrong.

Emergency officials all along the coast say they were shocked by the damage and death toll from Hurricane Katrina last year, and it forced them to reassess their plans.

"We were pretty smug about our capabilities here, until Katrina hit," said Tom Leath, city manager in Myrtle Beach, which hasn't had a direct hit from a hurricane since Hazel in 1954.

"We're really good at preparing for the storm, and jumping out as the last winds begin to subside and cleaning up quickly," he said. "No one had really given a whole lot of thought to what happens when the whole lay of the land is blown away."

At the same time, polls by the American Red Cross and the National Hurricane Survival Initiative show that about two-thirds of the residents of both states -- even those in coastal areas -- have done little or nothing to prepare their families or homes for hurricane season. And more than 1 in 10 say they wouldn't evacuate even if ordered to.

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford said that many coastal communities have gotten into the mind-set that "hurricanes are mainly about losing stuff. ... Katrina underscored that you can lose lives."

Read the rest here: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/14712380.htm

[webke]

They have been talking about the season for the last month in the Sun News and local TV here in the Myrtle Beach area. I'm watching this season closely due to all the predictions of this being more of a east coast season, sadly however, I do know that many of the people that I talk to and work with are not concerned, I guess only time will tell what's going to happen. Myself the only thing I have left to do to be prepared is put a new carbuerator on my generator.

[hurricanefreak1988]

I'm inland, but close enough to the coast that if a major hurricane came ashore, I'd still get hit pretty hard. Fran, Bonnie, and Floyd were good examples of that, with Fran being the most direct hit I've had.