St. Martin getting ready for hurricane season

The St. Martin Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness is reaching out to the public through social media and civic clubs to get ready for the onslaught of hurricane season.
Director Terry Guidry, a lieutenant colonel with the St. Martin Sheriff’s Office, told the Parish Council last week that he stands ready to address any organization in the parish, private or public, on matters of preparing for a natural disaster.
Guidry said they are also using Facebook and the SMSO Web site to get the word out.
In the past, he said, they disseminated information via paper packets at significant cost and manpower but with disappointing results.
Guidry said the latest thing in hurricane preparedness is to decrease emphasis on the strength category of a storm by factoring in the storm’s size, speed and angle of approach.
“A slow-moving category 1 that hits at just the right angle can cause more damage than a fast-moving category 5,” he said, noting that the resulting storm surge or flooding from a lingering deluge is often worse than wind damage.
He said the National Weather Service predicts a “normal” hurricane season for the Atlantic, with nine to 13 named storms, three to six reaching hurricane force, and one to three becoming major storms.