Coronavirus pandemic changing the way Florida is preparing for hurricane season
Florida leaders face new obstacle in preparing for hurricane season.
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After two months of the coronavirus pandemic forcing Americans to stay indoors and face the reality of a global crisis, some emergency officials worry that people living in hurricane-prone areas could be impacted by “disaster fatigue.”
“We have disaster fatigue, they’re tired of seeing the numbers, they’re tired of seeing the news. … They’re tired,” said Bill Wheeler, the deputy emergency management coordinator of Houston, Texas, told Accuweather.
The 2020 hurricane season has already arrived with Hurricane Arthur, the first named tropical storm of the season, which hit the North Carolina coast earlier this week.
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Hurricane season usually runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, but it came early this year and AccuWeather's top hurricane expert, Dan Kottlowksi, has projected the 2020 hurricane forecast is going be another busy year.
Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019 was the fifth wettest tropical cyclone, which dropped over 50 inches according to the local media outlet, the Houston Chronicle.
Houston has a history of repeated flooding, most notoriously when Hurricane Harvey in 2017 killed more than 100 people.
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“With hurricane season coming on, we're going to have to lay in some time to be prepared,” said Wheeler.
Psychologist and mental health worker for the American Red Cross Susan Silk said that experts need to “craft a message that people won’t tune out, that won’t induce more disaster fatigue.”
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The American Red Cross advises people to “Limit … exposure to the sights and sounds of disaster, especially on television, the radio and in the newspapers.”
“Do a hurricane drill at home right now,” said Wheeler. “It’d be a little bit different then COVID-19, but just do a family drill and talk about the things that you want to do.”
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