Blog: Heads of FEMA, Homeland Security and Hurricane Center join Florida Governor Scott for start of season

May 30, 2012

The following article was published in the Palm Beach Post on May 30, 2012:

Heads of FEMA, Homeland Security and Hurriane Center Join Governor Scott for the Start of Season

By Eliot Kleinberg

www.palmbeachpost.com

Some big guns will be in South Florida Friday to send this message: Hurricane season starts today and we’ve already used “A” (Alberto)and “B” (Beryl). Are you prepared? What are you waiting for?

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate, Gov. Rick Scott and outgoing National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read will hold a press conference Friday afternoon to talk up preparation for the season, which runs through Nov. 30.

Also Friday, the Colorado State University hurricane soothsayers will update their April 4 forecast of 10 named storms, with four of those becoming hurricanes and two becoming major storms, at Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmopsheric Administration predicted a 70 percent chance of 9 to 15 named storms, four to eight hurricanes, and one to three “majors.”

The historical average (1981-2010) is 12, six and three.

 Friday will essentially be the last official event for Read, who announced in January he’d be retiring after four years as director.

His replacement is a familiar face: Rick Knabb, who had been a senior specialist at the center, then pulled a stint at NOAA’s Pacific hurricane center in Hawaii, then spent two years with the Atlanta-based Weather Channel.

View the original article here:  http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/eyeonthestorm/2012/05/30/heads-of-fema-homeland-security-and-hurricane-center-join-gov-scott-for-start-of-season/