June 2021
by Bob Arnold, Publisher, Disaster Recovery Journal
[originally published on drj.com; written by Colin Garrison based on an interview with Bob Arnold]
I recently chatted with Joe Basciani, the director of meteorology operations for the Americas at StormGeo, about the 2021 hurricane season. (StormGeo is a leading weather intelligence service and also a new DRJ conference exhibitor).
What’s Joe’s advice to industry about the new storm season? “Buckle up.”
“We’re calling for an above-normal hurricane season,” he says. “We’re seeing conditions extremely similar to what we saw last year in terms of water temperatures and expected upper-level winds.”
For those with short memories, last year’s hurricane season was a record breaker. There were an unprecedented 30 named storms and 11 landfalling storms in the continental United States, according to NOAA.
NOAA’s forecast for this year tracks with StormGeo’s: Not as bad as last year, but likely to be of above average intensity.
Officially the season started June 1.
That things are getting lively out there I can tell you from personal experience. I was on the Gulf Coast last week, and the beach was taking a beating from some big waves driven in by a tropical storm that was hanging around offshore. It had everyone glued to the Weather Channel.
I don’t have to remind people whose organizations are based along the Gulf Coast and on the Southeast Atlantic Coast to make sure they’re ready. Those folks are becoming as well-versed in hurricane preparedness as it’s possible to be.
I would like to send out a heads-up to those at organizations elsewhere in the country.
If your company is based in the Midwest, the Southwest, or on the West Coast you might think that Atlantic hurricane season is one thing you don’t have to worry about.
And you might be right—provided you don’t have any critical suppliers based in hurricane country.
Is there a chance you do? If so, my advice would be: look into the matter and find out for sure.
If it turns out that you do have critical suppliers in the coastal parts of Southeast, take steps now to make sure you can continue your mission-critical operations if those vendors get knocked out of commission.
Lay in extra inventory of critical items, line up alternate suppliers, or both.
Do your company’s operations depend on a critical widget that’s produced in Mobile, Tampa, or coastal Carolina? If so, it doesn’t matter if you are sitting high and dry in Denver or Idaho. Your business could be impacted by a hurricane this season.
Want to kickstart your effort to ready your org for the upcoming storm season? If so, join us for “Preparing Your Organization for the 2021 Hurricane Season,” a webinar to be held Wednesday, July 7, 2021, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM EDT.
It will be run by AlertMedia’s in-house Meteorologist Jason Moreland and VP of Global Intelligence Sara Pratley. Topics will include the outlook for the season, how to identify potential hazards at your locations, how to mitigate risks, and how to safeguard your people and facilities.
The following week we’ll be hosting another timely webinar: “How to Prepare Your Organization for Severe Summer Weather.” That will be Wednesday, July 14, 2021, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM EDT.
Hope you can make it to one or both sessions.