Notes

After reading the two articles 1) Delivering Mental Health Services & Global Climate Change and 2) COVID-19 Impacts on Healthcare, Energy and Environment:

What are your thoughts on the two articles?
What did you learn?





Hurricane season starts on May 15 (North Pacific) and June first (Atlantic and Caribbean). It ends on November 30. Being that it is known which dates are included in the hurricane season, one should be prepared and plan ahead.

A hurricane can cause many different things. Some of these being the road being cut off causing a loss of the ability to drive and no power or water supply. This then brings the obvious, one should prepare having these situations in mind. An emergency supply kit should be prepared. This should include food and water (enough to last a while being that hurricanes can last more than a day and the damage can make you stuck for even longer), medicine, an alternative to power such as a flashlight, important documents that you can't do without, and a fire extinguisher.

During the hurricane season, there are two things one should look out for. A hurricane watch (it is possible for a hurricane to hit) and a hurricane warning (a hurricane is expected to hit.) A hurricane watch is usually set out 48 hours before winds from 39-73 mph and a hurricane warning is set out 36 hours prior to these winds.

If you are planning on evacuating, there are a number of things you need to make sure are set in place. You need to make sure your car is ready. This includes having the gas tank full and keeping things in your car in case of emergency. Even though you are leaving your home, you still need to make sure your home stays safe. There are certain measures you can keep making sure of this. This includes clearing your yard and bringing in everything to a safe place, turning off power in case of an outage, and emptying your fridge and taking care that these like this are not forgotten. Most importantly, do not forget to shut your shutters and close all windows and openings!

If you cannot evacuate and are staying home, make sure to keep your home safe and bring in all things from outside. Move your cars and vehicles to a safe garage for hurricanes. Close all shutters if your windows are not hurricane proof. Most importantly, listen to the news and stay updated on what is going on. Never go outside to check the weather and stay as far as you can from all windows.

When all this is taken care of, you are keeping the people and your home safe. All precautions need to be taken in order to prevent injury.

Because I live in Florida and by the beach, I have experienced hurricane watches and warnings several times. Mostly they were either a tropical storm or just a thunderstorm. However, we still had to stock up on all supplies and be ready to evacuate if necessary. Schools were closed and we were glued to the news, waiting to hear what to do next. One time most of the community evacuated and we did not have the chance to do so. Therefore, we moved to a friend's place where they lived on higher grounds and did not have to worry about flooding. We did have to prepare the house though and there was some fear involved in not being able to flee. Thankfully, the hurricane was nothing serious in the end.

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. (n.d.). Natural disasters and severe weather. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/index.html