So we'll hit the go live. Okay cool here we go. Good afternoon everybody. This is Adam Hadley State representative for House District 50 - nine doing our weekly teletownhalls series today we're gonna be talking about Hurricane Preparedness. Our guest today is Andy Johnson, the former on air meteorologist at W T V T Studios and the current President of Johnson. Forensic Meteorological Consulting Welcome Andy Thank you so much for joining us and please just introduce yourself and give everybody your qualifications. So we know that we're really talking to You for that introduction, Yes, I'm Andy Johnson. I'm a meteorologist. I've had a passion for since I was very young. it's not been just my location but my advocation and so I knew at a very young age. What I wanted to be and one of the reasons was we were affected by hurricane. We grew up on Davis islands and we were a flood zone and back in those days. We didn't have all the access to information about warnings and information so it was very traumatic. You know it. To leave your home, Not know if when you came back, you would have anything there. so I wanted to understand hurricanes so I ended up going to Florida State University. I have a degree and that's where science degree in from Florida State with a major and minor in mathematics. Then I continued my career at W T V T Channel 13, which is the Cbs affiliate for many years or Fox affiliate now they worked there for 30 almost 33 years, so I saw a. And the way hurricanes were forecasted a lot of ways that the science has changed a lot of the way It's technology has changed a lot of the way we get information to the public has changed it used to have three networks, three television stations and now you can get a lot of this information on the phone. So then I I after working there for 33 years, I took early retirement and for my own company. I did actually consulting work at Channel 13, but I have my own company so it's called Johnsons Forensic. Consulting and so what I do is now I look back into the past as far as what hurricane damage occurred. When I was working at the station, I was looking forward to forecasting the weather and that's kind of what we're gonna be talking about today to look at forecasting the weather and hurricanes and planning right again. Thank you for joining us so we'll just get get started right away. So we know that there's been a lot of reporting about how forecasters with Noah, you know the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration but with no climate. Are expecting they're expecting above normal 2020 in Atlantic hurricane season. Now, what exactly does that mean and what should Floridians anticipate? Well? I good question. I wanna talk about that because I wanna say what it means and what it doesn't mean I used to work with the at least indirectly with Doctor William Gray at Colorado State University. He was the first person that came up with the seasonal forecast back in the eighties. It was a fascinating profe. And he had all kinds of ideas that was a kind of a public-private partnership on a University. then, as you mentioned, Noah, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office was the official government agency. They're the parent umbrella of the National Weather Service, so they came up with the idea of continuing that and then you know a little bit more official capacity there, the official spokesperson of the US government as far as official statements so. When I was growing up, the average number of hurricanes was 10, but we've entered this unusually active season. So now the average has come up so this year they're expecting an above average season, but even above the more the higher numbers that we have recently so as I said when I was growing up you know in the sixties and seventies that we had 10 hurricanes a year now we have 12 hurricanes a year on the average excuse me 12 of named storms. I'm sorry, 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes basically this year. The Middle of the range for Noah is 16 storms, eight hurricanes and four major. They give a rain so in the the number of names storms ranges between about 13 to 19 for a range. I'll put on my reading glasses here, six to 10 for Hurricanes and major hurricanes three to six. now what that means is that is for the entire Atlantic Basin, which goes from Africa over to Texas. So it includes the Atlantic the Gulf of Mexico. The Caribbean Sea that's the whole bassin, so you could have a very active season and none of those storms hit the United States or conceivably hit land so, but the odds are the more storms you have the more likely that one of them is gonna bump up against the land. So what this tells you is that the chances are higher for a storm to hit somewhere in that bassin, they're hired to hit the United States and how to hit Florida, but it doesn't matter you can have a year where you only have one storm. That hits land and that could be severe just to give you an example. a lot of people remember Hurricane Andrew back in 1990, - two from a historical perspective that destroyed a lot of Homestead destroyed Homestead Air Force base. There were only I think five named storms that year five. It was like a way below normal season only one hurricane hit land, but that was Andrew so it's important to put things in perspective. Yes is expected to be an above average season that does not Is going to be hit or has a higher chance. It means that the bassin we'll have more total storms, so it's important to keep that in perspective and regardless of how many storms there are. it's important that you have a plan in place and all of our listeners have a plan in place that we live in a in a in a tropical zone in a hurricane prone area, so we need to prepare regardless of the total number of storms in the entire the entire bassin. okay. Thank you our next question is Florida's division of Emergency Management lists the primary hurricane hazards as storm surge inland flooding high winds and tornadoes. So can you talk a little bit about each of these hazards and the potential danger that we should be prepared for with each sure. so you mentioned a couple of them here you mentioned storm surge now storm surge is the hazard. Most people now we have seen a reduction in that that hazard up until Katrina remember Katrina killed more than a thousand people in Louisiana and that was from from storm surge flooding that over top the Levis there, but you go back historically to the the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. that was the the largest number of lies were lost and that disaster than any other. in our shores, I mean there are more people lost there that even on 911 over they estimated at least 6000 people that don't know the total number of people that died there, but that was from the storm surge. So the storm surge is the number one cause of of flooding. There's some percentage. I don't have those right in front of me now, but that you know, it's it's a large percentage. It's more than 30 to 40 percent of the deaths are from storm surge and why is that? for one thing just think about it, logically the weight of water, I mean water weighs more than air so water hitting you and carrying you and objects in the water, hitting you, it's gonna have more power more force behind it than air even though you think of the hurricane about the wind. it's the storm surge. So we have this kind of saying in the in the weather area you run from the wind and I mean run from the water and hide from the wind run from the water hide from the wind. So what that means is you wanna protect? From that highest category of Hazard, which is a storm surge flooding now the next cause of death is as you mentioned, you ask me about inland flooding that it happens that can happen don't have a farland. we just had a situation the other day where parts of the Tampa Bay area where we're flooded. I think it was a couple of three or four days ago, but you know people were trapped in the streets of the problem is that. If you don't evacuate before the heavy rains come then you could get in a situation where you can have flooded streets and have the cars stall out and then you asked about high winds and tornadoes of course, high winds the important thing to remember here is that if you are in a well constructed preferably concrete home, but even a wood frame home as opposed to a manufactured home, which has it's own special needs. you should be able to stay. Place and shelter in place as long as you're not in an evacuation zone, and this is particularly important this year because we're dealing with another hazard the Corona virus, so there are a multitude of other issues there about you know coming in contact with people sheltering the number of shelters are gonna be reduced this year. the total number of people I think in the shelter are gonna be reduced to around 50 people. you're gonna have to go through a lot more hassle to to to get in there you have to preregister different aspects of it, so the important thing is. Because of the storm storm surge that's those people need need to evacuate you are told to evacuate based upon your evacuation zone and you should know what that evacuation zone is I'll give you some websites in a few minutes that's who should evacuate. So there's there's an evacuation zone, A B, C, D and E you need to know that now and I'll give you the website so you can look that up. you need to know where it is. you can make a plan so. Then you will evacuate and the other thing I'd like to say, is that even if you do everything right that the sad thing about it is that people could do everything correctly, they could protect their homes and you know some unusual situation. a tree could fall or tornado could hit and still injured, so we just encourage people to to to do the best and to to be the use to make the wisest decisions for your particular situation. Okay and I always get this one confused. This is almost a little bit from my own curiosity and what's the difference between a hurricane Watch and a hurricane warning. I know one is worse than the other. I can never remember, which that's a good question and a lot of people have questions about that. so the the the simple answer for the worst. The warning is the worst warning just think of Red lights flashing warning. That's the worst watch is to be watchful, so basically what that means is technically. Watch means that it's possible that you you should be on an alert that you should be aware. keep up with the news. Keep up with your phone apps keep up with everything during a watch. The watch is usually issued 36 hours prior to when a hurricane is expected to cross the Coast. a warning excuse me. That's the warning. The warning is 36 hours. The watch is 48 hours, so the worst is the warning and Means that hurricane conditions are expected within the next 36 hours. The watch is in the next 48 hours. It's possible and you should remain on alert now. Sometimes the warning is an issue until less than 24 hours. It's possible as well so but in answer to your question, think warning you know no Will Robinson morning. That's that's danger you know. and then the watch is literally what it means. To be watchful and kind of a long along those lines, What are some of the different types of storms that we would typically see here in Florida and you're like what's the difference between a hurricane to a tropical storm to a depression to tropical cyclone or what what are the categories that we use and that we typically see here. That's a good question too. and you know we use a lot of these terms and people don't understand there's a specific definition but basically between a. Depression or tropical storm or a hurricane, The difference has to do with the amount of wind speed so the lowest in the and those three is a depression, so the winds are under 39 miles an hour and there is some circulation, which is a precursor to a tropical storm or tropical storm has a circulation, but it has winds between 39 and 73 miles an hour. A hurricane has winds 74 miles, an hour or greater, and then they are further. According to 12345, according to what's called the Sapper Sampson Hurricane Wind Scale now the hurricane was changed a few years ago from the hurricane scale, The Hurricane Wind Scale because they used to include storm surge in that one to five scale and that's another thing confusing people, they said. Well, if you got a category for hurricane, then you're gonna have a higher storm surge. that's no longer the case. The Hurricane Center now issues a separate advisory for flooding and a separate advice. For wind, so you may have a situation where you only had a category two hurricane, but you have a very large storm surge or vice versa. One of the examples I can give from a local perspective is that Hurricane Charlie back in 2004, which affected Florida. it was headed right towards Tampa. It made it turn a little bit and went inland over Fort Myers. It was a category for hurricane, but they only had storm surge six to seven feet. Why is that it was because it was a smaller size to the size of the storm dictates the amount of. Not the winds, but how how much the radius of the winds are so you had Katrina the next year and it hit Louisiana as a category three, but it was a much larger storm several times the size so you had you had storm surge up to 25 feet 25 feet versus six feet. The winds were higher in Charlie, but not in that. So it's it's very important that when you when you listen to these warnings and and get the information that you understand that they're there are two different hazards. as we talked about the wind and the water those are two. So if you're told to evacuate for the water, that's what that applies to to that aspect is not dependent upon the the actual hurricane you know winds itself. now, you also mentioned, I think a tropical cyclone so a tropical cyclone is a generic term, which covers all of those so a. It is a tropical cyclone or tropical storm as a tropical cyclone or hurricane is a tropical cyclone, but not vice versa necessarily so and then in other parts of the world, we call hurricanes by different names like typhoons now in Australia. they call them cyclones there. They just call them cyclones. They don't call them hurricanes so part of it's Nola and part of it's just specifically to the United States or the surrounding Caribbean countries but basically. The differences that you're asking about those different names have to do with wind except the tropical cyclone, which is not dependent upon the wind. Okay. so now now when people are gonna be hearing about these things, they're gonna be getting their information from different sources. Now. what where do you go? What do you say is the most reliable source to follow for some of these weather, updates and warnings like the local news or the weather Channel National Weather Service. what where do you go? What's the most reliable source? Well, there's a lot of sources of course, the official government source The National Hurricane Center. There are people that have dedicated their lives. That's all they do every day at work. Done this for many years at the the National Hurricane Center so you could go to WWW dot Hurricanes dot Gov. So that's the official voice and you can see information on graphics there and you can get the reasoning behind why they are doing these warnings. so there's something called a the hurricane discussion. so these are if you know some people like to get into the weeds a little bit more. If you'd like to get in the weeds, you can look at the discussion if you. Get an overview that gives you the official warnings now, of course, there are some other sites and you know maybe I have some bias because I wanted to Channel 13 for so many years. they have an excellent site that I worked on developing some of the aspects that side and so it's called my foxx Hurricane dot com My Foxx Hurricane dot com. That's a local station here. It's not on the National level, but it is it has a wealth of information. There's lots of links if you wanna know about models and each day, the meteorologist talks about you know. A specific information because you know a lot of people just overwhelmed they log on to something and see all these models and all the stuff they need a little bit of guidance as to focus as to what's important and what's not. And so these discussions help you put that into focus and the meteorologist the Channel 13, give you that that focus another site is I use on my phone is my radar and you know I I I'm I don't have. Is just something I use personally my radar also you know the weather channel does a good job for from a broad perspective, but in cases like this, no matter what local station you watch you know, I think it's probably better if hurricanes gonna affect our area. I would watch a local station. You know whether it's channel 10 Channel eight Channel 13 where I used to work if you're gonna use do that look at the local level because this is a hyper local event and you know it. To cover everything from that perspective and and I think we're gonna talk about this. I might as well mention this a little bit now to another as far as weather sites is Florida disaster dot Org. You spell out the word Florida you know, F R I D A disaster all one word dot Org. That's a good site for issues related to to evacuation zones and and specific things not necessarily they need a large aspect, but it does have information on flood zones and that's something that I encourage You know while it's quiet. Out the side and in just a few clouds out there while the weather is nice, find out what your flood zone is you can go to. I think it is Florida Florida Disaster dot Org and and look at that and you can enter your information. your address in there in Hillsborough County has a website as well where you can find out what your flood zone is so that you know so when they say zones, a B and C should evacuate, you'll know immediately. What you need to do because during a hurricane, there's gonna be a lot of other things going on. You're not gonna really have. you know the ability to focus on some of the minutia. It's better to get this all information out early on. Okay And now we're gonna switch topics a little bit away from some of the more technical aspects of it and talk a little bit about hurricane preparedness. if you go through all the steps that Florian should really take to prepare for a hurricane, you know and and I know you alluded to it briefly before are there any specific steps that should be taken considering the the current threat of Covid- 19. Well, that's a very important point because we're we're dealing with the potential of having two disasters at the same time to to Same time the the virus and and the hurricane at the same time so one source of information here. That's it's helpful. is H CFL Gov dot net. So it's stands for Hillsborough County, Florida Government dot Net H CFL Gov dot net and I was also I talked with an emergency manager, They said. I'm allowed to give this a number of people maybe not computer savvy or don't know how to go through all the world. they can call Hillsborough County at eight. 2726028 13272602 That's for assistance on notifications how to set up your notifications and anything about evacuation. So that's a good information to know so on this site H L Florida Gov dot net It has there's something called H CFL alert. So if you have a smartphone, you can set it up and register so that. Night or day, you can get a message on your phone that will tell you information that's pertinent and you can customize it to your area. Now you also asked about you know what's going on with you know how this relates to covid- 19 in the past. you know Hills County set up a lot of shelters They this year. They're gonna increase the number of shelters, but I've been told that they're going to limit it at least for now who you know this season goes along. I don't know what's gonna change, but for now they're gonna limit it to 50 people per shelter The advice that I would give and I think the message coming from Hillsborough County Emergency Management is. Find some other place to go. I mean that they're gonna provide this government shelters as a as a place of last resort, but they're not necessarily going to be comfortable. You're gonna have to go through this additional steps of the temperature screening. you have to wear a face covering if you have been exposed to cocaine, you cannot be mixed in with the general the other people that haven't so the suggestion is to think about this now maybe call up and an old friend or. That lives in a higher elevation or family member that lives in a higher zone. That's not gonna be flooded and say you know, can I Reserve my place at your House? If we have an emergency you know seriously, I mean you know it's better to to be surrounded by friends and family, something like this than not so that's gonna create certain issues now. Also we know that right now, I mean I I'm not privy to all the different changes going on. you probably know more than I do about this, but there's a number of hotel rooms. you know are limited the the number of. Rooms that can be rented out, so that's gonna put a crunch so some people that used to go hotel rooms that that might not be an option so the the important thing is to think about especially this year, don't evacuate unless you have to or you're told to if you live inland I in the eastern part of your district and you will live in a well-built home. Stay shelter in place. If you live in an area where water can come in, you can't you can't escape you have to get away from that water because it comes in too fast. That's what the most number of deaths are caused by drowning. so the the the information is because we don't we don't want this the high to be clogged with people evacuate. They don't need to you know it could create gas shortages other issues so especially this year more than even in other years, it's important to shelter in place. Now there's an exception if you live in a. Your home and the winds are expected to be over 75 miles an hour in your area. It's it's it's urge that you leave that residence because there are more susceptible to strong winds, But those are some ways that this year is gonna be different from other years where we could be facing two different emergencies at the same time because you know you're exposing think about a year, you're if you go to a shelter. you know you're exposing yourself to another threat. you know it's kinda like you know kind of between a. Hard place, So that's why it's important to have a a plan in place and I believe there is a let's see if I can find my notes here on that. I believe the AC it's actually the state. The Florida Disaster dot Org site. You know as I mentioned it has this list. so you're talking about how should you plan They have a list in there and you know just common sense things medication make sure you have enough medication to get through that period of time. So if your prescription is gonna be ending, you know if you've got five pills left, you might wanna see about that. With the insurance company, but you see make sure that that's you know you have those in place because you're not gonna be able to get medication if you go to someone's House or into the you know into a shelter. also think about non-perishable food water fill up your tank with gas before the hurricane get cash out of your ATM. the electricity could be off. you might not be able to get cash. The cash registers at the stores might not be working, so they rented that in Miami with the Hurricane Andrew. So you know have cash available also take pictures of everything because if your House is damaged, you know we've all have access most of us to to cell phones. Take pictures around your House before you leave so that if something happens, you can show that to your insurance company say. Well, you know I left my House and it was fine and then I came back and the windows were broken or something like that so that you can document information also take with you if you can in a in a folder, Take your your health insurance information and your car insurance information, so you'll have a number to call. in case you know you know if you're driving and something happens to your car or if your House is affected and you can't get back to it make sure you have that information readily available. Okay, what about stocking up on supplies? I know you mentioned medication, but I know if you're gonna shelter in place, there are some some other things that you're gonna need. so is there anything different or specific that that Florian should should buy or stock up on you know for this year's hurricane season again, especially considering the pandemic usually the rule of thumb is five, you should have five days worth of food and water for everyone in your household so You know things like bread you know peanut butter, you know not non-perishable food that you can you can eat and so plan on. Potentially at least five days without having power, we even had situations with you know with Irma, which wasn't a direct hit. There were some areas in Hillsborough County that that had lost power for longer than that. so there's there's a list of items actually in that for disaster dot Org site which you know you can do a checklist and then create a PDF file and just print it off. So and all of these things you can get now, you know every time we have a hurricane. if it's coming three to four days in advance, it starts getting announced on the news. It's coming. it's coming. Just flood the stores and you can't you know they run out of everything so think about some things now like canned goods. you can get those now a bottle of water. that's something you can get now and you know people talk about also filling up your bathtub with water. That's not for drinking water, but that's if you if you lose this pressure from the city so that you can use that water to flush toilets things like that's the purpose of that water, but you need to have drinkable potable water as well so a lot of these items you can. Now, they're not gonna go bad, you know, chips and things like that. I mean they're gonna last six months. Remember the hurricane season begins on June first and goes to November thirtieth. Now this year we've already had three named storms. This is the earliest that three named storms have ever happened. so you know it's it's it's kinda it could be a very year and now you mentioned evacuation evacuation protocol earlier. so during a hurricane, there's often a lot of a lot of confusion on this topic. you know some people leave their. To stay with family or friends, I go to local shelters like you mentioned and some even leave the state entirely like like my wife and I did during Hurricane Irma now considering the ongoing threat of the pandemic and travel restrictions that are still in place. you know, travel and evacuations certain certainly gonna be less than ideal during this year's hurricane season. So there's a couple of questions for that. you mentioned you know you can try to find where your flood zone is so one who actually would need to evacuate and you know if you do evacuate where. Best places to go you mentioned some of the the health and safety preparations that you'd recommend, but you know, besides the things that you need at home. what things should you bring with you and what are the things that Floridians do to really prepare their homes before they leave. A lot of good questions there let me let me address a couple of them. You've mentioned evacuation zones and flood zones. Now, I've got a paper here. You can look it up on the Hillsborough County website, but there's there's a there's a map and it's color coded. so you can color code it. So when you're district, I believe that Ayer River comes through there in the southern part of it so that goes way inland so people East of I 75 are in a flood zone. If you're near the River depends on where you are. so it's important that you look at this map. Enter your address on this website and it'll tell you what your evacuation zone is now. Also there's something important to note. It's kind of a a fine point, but it's a very important point. There's an evacuation zone and there's a flood zone. They're not the same So evacuation zones are specifically for hurricanes. There's A B, C, D and E. There's five of them so that will be the government of the National Hurricane Center will suggest that these are the evacuation zones your local government will. Say it's mandatory Hillsborough County to everyone in a and B leave their House so those people need to leave now, there's something called the flood zones. Everyone is in a flood zone. Everyone has a flood category risk so this has to do with your insurance. Now those zones are a-b, CD V and X, so those are different. so it's important not to get those confused for your insurance company purposes. Those flood zones are you so if you have a claim against your insurance after the hurricane, you'll need to know what that flood zone is so flood zone and evacuation zone are two different things so. It's important to know where it is now you mentioned that I think I think you and I say a lot of people went out of state. I think more people evacuated out of state during Hurricane Irma than in any other hurricane ever we have a densely populated state. We stick out here in the peninsula. People are worried, but I would emphasize that if you're in a well constructed home, I would suggest staying in your home, especially this season because there are fewer options to go for. Tass out of state and everything so what do you need to do the most vulnerable parts of your House are the parts that can break or be breached so those are Windows and your garage door now most people in the last 20 years or so for the garage door, you have to have it reinforced with this kind of X bars. if you don't you might wanna consider doing that now well, it's not busy. so you wanna protect your garage, especially if you have a garage attached to your House windows. Storm shutters are now required by code in Hillsborough County. you can if you there, they're expensive to buy the the automatic ones. but in my my former home, I did lag bolts into the concrete and then measure the plywood and labeled it. so that's one way cuz you don't wanna have to deal with these things the last minute you want. the important thing is to plan ahead. so if you can cover your Windows, don't take them. That's an old technique it. And do anything and you'll be hard to get that tape off and this side after the hurricane. it doesn't really help. It's it's supposed to keep some last from breaking but it's not gonna keep the pressure so an answer to your question. you wanna know what would you do you wanna protect the most vulnerable parts of your House as long as your windows are not breached and your roof stays on and your garage is not breached. You'll be fine. The problem is that when the window breaks then. Creates all kinds of issues once the window breaks and what and when gets into your House, it puts pressure on the opposite Wall. Other windows start to break out so it's kind of a cascading effect so if if if you have a way of of protecting the Windows, whether it's through, it's just simply plywood with lag bolts that you can, you can already set those into the concrete and just you know screw that you know screw the on later or you can you know have professional shutters installed so those are. But again I I do wanna emphasize that this year more than ever. It's it's better to stay in place unless you're told to you also don't wanna get in the way of those people evacuating. I'm sitting here right now. I happen to be on Davis Islands. I'm looking out the window probably six feet above Sea level. These people need to get out and if the roads are all blocked, you know people that don't need to evacuate are gonna block their way on the interstate or other issues, so just think of other people as well as your own situation. Okay. we've covered you know a little bit of the science behind the storms some of the evacuation procedures. now we have one more quick topic. Can you talk briefly about disaster recovery? what are some of the initial steps that people should take you know if their homes or businesses, You know we are damaged during a storm and just some of the the recovery process. sure well, that's it's important thing you talk to you mentioned business as I didn't really talk about that. So you know people have homes. They also have businesses again To talk about this Florida dot Org site, you have a it it it. It has like a you know, cut and paste thing that you can just you can go down that and it has a section for families, special needs and businesses before and after the storm some of the things after the storm when you're returning to your home and business you want to for financial reasons you wanna document what happened so be prepared to take. There because as time goes on repairs are made there may not be any documentation. so if you're filing an insurance claim for wind or water, it's important to have some type of documentation also after hurricane there could be down power lines. it's a very serious thing. you could have flooding once you have electricity and water. you don't have to touch the power line. All you have to do is get in the water. There was a tragedy. I think it was her tropical storm Jerry back about 15 years ago in Tampa. Someone was killed, but they didn't know the water had come into their House while they were asleep and they got out of their bed put their feet in the water and the water had gotten into all the electrolytes. It was a current and they were electrocuted. so it's very important that before you you know to wait until the water goes down cuz you don't know what could have happened. There could be you know depressions that are there that you can sink into that could be down power lines that you can't see that are underneath the water and then so that the next thing is you need to do are to you know deal with any With the power being out like spoiled food, you wanna you know sanitize as much as possible. Have you know use Clorox bleach to to sanitize items and so those those are a few things. But there's a there's a you know a full list. If you go to that site, it's it's like a checklist and you can just check it off. Well, fantastic well, Andy Thank you so much for joining us. let me just give you a quick opportunity to add in anything that you feel that we've skipped over before we finish up well, I just like to say you know it's important that we realize you know that there, there are potential hazards out there The hazard actual chance of a hurricane hitting is very low. It has a high. Impact So when we're assessing anything in life, you know it's risk versus reward So my motto, you know always when I was, you know on a channel 13 was to give information but not hype it and not to cry wolf when it's not necessary that way you know when it is really severe. if you've hyped it before people won't listen to you. so the important thing is to to remain calm and the best way to do that is. Everything in advance, so it's much easier if you write everything down like let's say, you know and some of these plants you can go online and as I mentioned and get them but you know if if you have kids think and think about the situation, your kids are at school, you're at work and then there's a hurricane warning issued and then they're trying to get home in a different hour and they normally do you may not be able to get home so everything needs to be discussed in advance. so you need to talk to your kids and if you have any elderly relatives living with you about what your plan is where you're gonna go, let's say. Worst case scenario, you lose power the phones out. you need to have a plan as far as and it needs to be written down like where you're gonna go. You gonna go to Aunt Betty's House or whatever like some place to meet if you can't reach anybody so because you know there's a there's a lot of stress, but as long as everything is written down and again as I emphasized do as much now as possible, you don't need to wait until three days for the hurricane to go to go to the store and get lumber that can be done now. You don't need to if you're gonna do. That can be done now perishable non-perishable foods you can buy those now, so the important thing that I would like to emphasize is to to plan ahead. Not panic just have a plan and just execute that plan you just move to the plan. It takes a lot of the stress away from you and you know that's one of my goals as I was growing up. I felt so much stress that when I came back to our our House realize we had 15 minutes to try to evacuate because there were no evacuation orders. The water was just coming up. I had 15 minutes to get. In the car, I wanted to prevent other people from feeling that state of you know feeling of anxiety, so there's no reason to feel anxious. If you know if you have the knowledge about what's gonna go, don't listen to rumors listen to trusted sources and then just execute your plan. Perfect well. Thank you again to Andy Johnson the former on air meteorologist at W T V T Studios and the current President of Johnsons Forensic meteor logical consulting. Thanks everybody for joining us. I'm Adam Howards State representative for House District 59. I'll be on the lookout for our Tele-town Hall next week right here trying to keep everybody as informed as possible and thank you again. Andy for joining us and we'll see you all next week. Thank