Browsing: Hurricanes

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How To Prepare Your Boat for a Hurricane: Four Great Tips from Boat US

SPRINGFIELD, Va., May 21, 2019 – When a hurricane approaches, recreational boat owners have a big problem. Faced with limited time to protect their homes, and with families to possibly evacuate, what can they do to prepare their boats? The nation’s largest boating advocacy, services and safety group, The Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS), says you only need to look at last year’s hurricane season to find answers. And with the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1, BoatUS has some valuable preparation tips for boat owners. On September 14, 2018, Hurricane Florence lumbered ashore near Wrightsville…

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Early Predictions for Hurricane Season: About Same Number, and Just as Destructive, As Past Two Years

It’s still very early in the hurricane prediction business, but we already have two major forecasts for this year’s season, which starts June 1. They both agree that the Atlantic and Gulf coasts will have about the same number of storms as in an average year, but one prediction says the hurricanes we do have will be just as destructive as they’ve been in the past two years. Global Weather Oscillations Inc. specializes in predicting hurricane landfalls, which is what we really want to know. They use ClimatePulse technology, developed by David Dilley, a former NOAA meteorologist; it tracks landfall…

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Massive New Study: Ocean Temperatures Rising Faster Than Expected

Here’s a thorough and important story from The New York Times about a new scientific analysis showing that ocean temperatures are warming much faster (up to 40 percent faster) than had been previously predicted, with serious implications for marine life, sea levels and future hurricanes: Scientists say the world’s oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change because almost all the excess heat absorbed by the planet ends up stored in the waters. A new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that the oceans are heating up 40 percent faster…

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After Michael, Marinas and Boats in Panama City Suffer Catastrophic Damage. See Aerial Pictures

Here’s a great story from the Miami Herald about the catastrophic destruction of a marina and boats in Panama City, Florida, plus a series of aerial pictures of simply catastrophic damage there: PANAMA CITY — The marina once hosted a morning coffee club, rented fishing rods to families and was home to a tight-knit community of sailors and boaters. Nothing remained standing, or floating upright, in the destructive wake of Hurricane Michael. Boat owners, workers and residents who came to salvage what they could on Thursday found dirty water swirled with cracked wood planks, snapped masts and scattered, shredded life…

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How To Recover Your Boat After a Hurricane: Best Tips from BoatUS

Here’s some great – and timely – advice from BoatUS about how to recover your boat after a hurricane: With the remnants of Hurricane Florence now on the way out to sea and high waters still posing a threat to some regions, boat owners are starting recovery efforts. The BoatUS Marine Insurance Catastrophe Team began field operations on Sunday, Sept 16, in the Carolinas. To help affected boat owners with the recovery effort, BoatUS offers these five tips to assist boaters in recovering their vessels and starting the salvage  process. 1.Get permission first. Never try to enter a storm-affected marina…

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The Best – and Worst – Ways To Prepare Your Boat for a Hurricane, from BoatU.S.

Now that hurricane season is heating up, you need to make double-sure that your boat is prepared for the worst. As the old saying goes – prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Here is some great advice from BoatU.S. about how to help your boat survive a hurricane, drawing on lessons learned from hurricanes dating back to 1983. Since then, BoatU.S. Marine Insurance has been collecting evidence of what worked – and what didn’t – when owners thought they were making their boats safe. You already know to take off your Bimini and anything else that can blow…

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After a Strong Start, This Years’s Atlantic Hurricane Season May Be Less Severe than Average

This year’s Atlantic hurricane season started early and it started strong, but it may end up as something of a fizzle. That’s according to the latest report from the experts at Colorado State University, who now are predicting that we’ll have fewer named storms than average for the remainder of this hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30. Now the Colorado State forecast calls for 12 named storms this year, way under last year’s 17. Three have already formed in the Atlantic, and two – Beryl and Chris – became hurricanes. The new forecast calls for only nine more for the…

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NOAA Predicts 75% Chance of Normal or Above Normal Atlantic Hurricane Season This Year

NOAA just released its 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook, with predictions of near- or above-normal activity. In fact, NOAA said there’s a 70 percent chance of 10 to 16 named storms developing this season; five to nine of them could become hurricanes, including one to four major hurricanes. Last year there were six major hurricanes in the Atlantic; three of them, Irma, Maria and Harvey, resulted in the loss of 251 lives. The specific forecast for the season, which runs from June 1 to November 30: 35 percent chance of above normal. 40 percent of near normal. 25 percent of…

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Six Things to Check Now on Your Hurricane Insurance from BoatU.S.

The last thing you need is for a hurricane to damage your boat. Well, that’s not quite right. The last thing you really need is for a hurricane to damage your boat when you don’t have enough hurricane insurance. To keep that from happening, here’s a list of six things you need to know about insuring your boat in a hurricane zone from BoatU.S. This may be particularly important because the experts at Colorado State University have already predicted that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season could be worse than usual, with the possibility of 14 tropical storms and seven hurricanes.…

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