Hurricane Fay
Hurricane Fay, a ferocious tropical Storm Fay has gained strength from its triangle off the west coast of Haiti. Hurricane Fay is said to be building up and gaining more strength. This is becoming worrisome, according to the National Hurricane Center. The build up by hurricane Fay is threatening the State of Florida as time passes by. Latest reports indicate that Hurricane Fay is moving westward away from the island of Hispaniola. The Hurricane Centre has told reporters that this movement will enlarge the storm into a very strong Hurricane Fay. National Hurricane Centre further confirmed that lack of strong wind shear will help the winds strengthening into a very dangerous Hurricane.
Early today the movement of the hurricane has been under surveillance. The National Hurricane Center was monitoring it at 11 a.m. EST and located the Hurricane Fay was about 95 miles west-northwest of Port Au Prince, Haiti, and about 130 miles southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba. The storm is blowing west at a speed of 15 mph. Florida is expected to be hit by storm early Monday. This will have then made the hurricane to have attained Category one hurricane with a speed of between 45mph to100mph. Fay is expected to dump 5 to 10 inches of rain on Sunday while its effects will remain in Haiti, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas. Tropical storm alerts have been issued in Jamaica, the central Bahamas and the Cayman Islands to prepare residents of possible destruction by Fay. Florida residents have ample time to get out. Currently, the hurricane Fay is estimated to be causing serious rains, flash floods and dangerous mudslides
Hurricane Fay Update
A man died Saturday in Haiti while trying to cross a river in Leogane, south of Port-au-Prince, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of Haiti’s civil protection department. No further information was immediately available.
In neighboring Dominican Republic, a 34-year-old woman drowned when a family tried to cross a swollen river in a car, civil defense agency director Luis Luna Paulino said. Her 13-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy were missing, but her husband swam to safety.
Forecasters said Fay could bring hurricane-force winds to the Florida Keys as early as Monday, but meteorologist Christopher Juckins warned that residents statewide should be prepared for a hurricane.
“The official track brings it off the west coast of Florida Tuesday and Wednesday, however, the track is always uncertain and the entire peninsula of Florida needs to pay attention to the storm,” Juckins said.
Within 38 minutes this Sunday morning, I received two text/email alert messages from different governmental authorities. Both transmitted potentially important information, though on a very different scale. I thought I would mention them.
First at 8:22am, I received this from Miami-Dade County in Florida:
Miami-Dade Alerts: Miami-Dade County is under a tropical storm watch. Please prepare now for Fay and stay tuned to local media for more info
Then from up the Atlantic coast, this message hit my Blackberry:
On Sunday, August 17th, between 12:00 PM (noon) and 8:00 PM, there will be a movie filming at 1600 Market Street and the street will be shut down. There will be simulated gunfire during the filming. Please use caution around the area and expect limited traffic congestion. Sent by MaryAnn Marrocolo to 2993 individual users (e-mail accounts, pagers, Cell phones) through Philadelphia ReadyNotifyPA
Obviously, the Hurricane Fay information is more important to more people. However, to those near the impacted area in Philadelphia, this smaller alert could be very helpful. Further, while other media are informing Miami residents about Fay, this text/email probably is the only way that Philadelphians will hear about the movie ’shooting’. So, the takeaway is that these electronic alerts can be helpful both for major emergencies and small inconveniences.