Hurricane Season Begins Anew

We're back in Hurricane Season again! Officially Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 and ends November 30, but Mother Nature doesn't always follow the calendar. (Trivia: The earliest date in a calendar year that a hurricane formed was March 6, 1908; The latest date in a calendar year that a hurricane formed was December 31, 1954, Hurricane Alice.) 

The last direct hit we took was from Hurricane Bob on July 25, 1985. Fortunately, Hurricane Bob was a minimal category 1 storm that came ashore at Fripp Island causing little damage before moving northward. But in the immortal words of Katie Scarlett O'Hara "Tomorrow is another day," and the next Category 5 hurricane may form tomorrow with Port Royal Sound and/or St. Helena Sound in its bulls-eye. While we may sit in the pocket of South Carolina (just look at a map) and other parts of our coast tend to get more hurricane strikes than we have, it only takes one storm to wreak havoc - as our history has indeed proven!

• Get ready by reviewing some general hurricane advice from national and local emergency preparedness professionals at http://bit.ly/1oqsZuU.

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which operates the National Hurricane Center has put together a Tropical Cyclone Preparedness Guide (PDF) to provide reputable information regarding what to consider when forming your own emergency preparedness plans. They do however caution that “this is only a guide. The first and most important thing anyone should do when facing a hurricane threat is to use common sense.”

Heads up: On the 121^st anniversary of the most devastating hurricane to hit Beaufort County,  August 28th, we’re doing a reprise of “Tide of Death: The Great Sea Island Storm of 1893” in a BDC@ Beaufort Branch local history program.