City of Oldsmar, Florida Disaster Prep, 31 Dec 2015

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From YouTube: Prepare to Survive - El Niño | Effects of El Niño

Description

What is El Niño? Why do forecasters warn it could bring severe weather to Pinellas County this winter and early spring? In this special edition of Prepare to Survive, National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Noah discusses why warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean can generate floods and tornadoes in Florida. Pinellas County Emergency Management Director Sally Bishop explains how to prepare for El Niño and how to receive emergency warnings when severe weather strikes.

Check out all six segments of Prepare to Survive – Special Edition El Niño here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2oRjtRi088Dl-HLroX7jEoovAg1mlvnf

For more information on El Niño, visit http://www.pinellascounty.org/emergency/El-Nino.htm

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Heavy rains, tornadoes, flooding. here in pinellas county. We typically think of these effects during hurricane season., but they can also happen because of the el nino phenomenon.

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The national weather service is predicting a wetter and colder-than-normal winter and spring due to el nino..

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What is el nino?? What does it mean to you?? Will your home and family be at risk?.

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Libby: hello, and welcome to.

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This special edition of "prepare to survive.", I'm libby bolling with pinellas county communications.

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Joining me to talk about the el nino phenomenon and what you.

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Can do to prepare for the possibility of extreme weather.

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Is sally bishop,, director of pinellas county emergency.

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Management. thanks for joining us, sally. sally: thank you,, libby. libby: and dan noah, warning coordination meteorologist with the national weather service in ruskin..

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Thanks for joining us, dan. dan:, my pleasure, libby.

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libby:. What is el nino? dan:? You can think of el nino.

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As warmer-than-normal temperatures in the tropical pacific., it's only two or three degrees,, but we're talking about a bathtub. That's 5,000 miles, long, a thousand miles wide and.

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500 feet deep., so that's a lot of excess energy in the ocean that is going to be.

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Released into the atmosphere. libby: and is it along the equator, is that where it is?.

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Dan:, it is along the equator. and that warm water changes where the thunderstorms form,.

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And you get all that energy going up into the upper atmosphere, and that changes where the upper level, jet stream.

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Is going. now,? That's just a fast-moving river of air about 30,000 feet off the ground. normally, for florida,, it's well north of us,, and we have chamber of commerce weather.. But this year is going to be different..

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El nino will take that jet stream, and it's going to flow across northern mexico right across central florida, and.

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That's our concern, because that can help develop violent.

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Libby: so, violent tornadoes, more rainfall,, heavier rainfall.

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Can you describe what we may see? dan: back in '97 and '98 was the last time we had an el nino.

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This strong., we ended up with our deadliest tornado in florida.

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42 fatalities in kissimmee in february of '98.

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We had record rainfall, river flooding,, areawide flooding.

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And we had all that growth of green pop up over the dry.

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Season. and then we went right into a drought, and all that green stuff tried up and caught on fire, and we closed interstate 4.

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For multiple days.

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Libby: oh, my goodness., so those -- I mean,. We hope that doesn't happen,, but the best.

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Thing is to be prepared and understand what the possibilities are. dan:. The biggest effect is from january through april.

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So that's about 120 days.. During that time, period, there might be seven or so outbreaks..

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By outbreak, I mean 60 reports of damage and hundred million.

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Dollars' worth of damage.- and it usually is at night,, which is our biggest concern.

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between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. are, when most of the fatalities occur in these tornadoes. libby: mhh.

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Well, sally,, I know that we are very concerned about the.

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Possibility of these heavier-than-normal weather.

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Impacts here in pinellas, county, and emergency management is.

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Preparing,, like you, do every day, isn't it?.

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Sally: absolutely., so the basic hazards that we're looking at are the heavy.

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Rainfall,, which could cause flooding and then the severe weather, which could cause tornadoes..

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So we're focused on those hazards and making sure that.

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We're prepared for those hazards and that our partner agencies.

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And our city partners are aware that this is an elevated threat.

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For this season, so that everybody is on the same sheet.

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Of music, as far as we've got our plans in order.

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we're aware of what the possibilities are that are coming. besides that, we're doing a very large campaign,. This being part.

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Of it, to make sure that our general population knows that.

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They need to not relax just because it's not hurricane.

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Season this year., so that kit that they keep all year long during hurricane season, needs to be refreshed, and we're suggesting that they.

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Add some items to it., so they can expect to see a lot of media releases, news, releases, social media posts..

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Our web has been updated..

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Our web page has been updated.

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all of the things that we can do to make sure that we've got the word out. So citizens are aware that they need to be prepared.

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From january through april for very active weather --, the.

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Possibility of a very active weather, season., libby: and part of that is the weather-ready nation that is.

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With the national weather service and noaa., can you tell me about that? Partnership?.

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Dan: absolutely. after hurricane sandy, sociologists did a study,.

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And they said, okay, weather service,. You told all these people to prepare and a lot of people didn't, because they don't know you., so they said, "recruit ambassadors.".

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So we're looking for ambassadors for weather-ready nation.

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Somebody in your organization that likes weather,, whether it's.

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In your hoa or church,, they can sign up to be an ambassador.

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Every so often they'll get an e-mail, a preparedness e-mail, that they can share with the people around them and help them.

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To get prepared.

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Libby: um-hum. and pinellas county is a partner as an ambassador with the program.

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Sally: we certainly are. actually, dan, just --, one of the other things that the timing happened to be fabulous on. Is we just had the largest weather, spotter class,, which is another thing that citizens can get.

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Involved in is become weather, spotters.

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And then also sign up to become weather ambassadors as part of that, so they spread the word throughout the community.

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Libby: um-hum. so for personal preparedness,. What do we tell people?.

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We tell them year-round about this,, don't we?.

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Sally: right, right., so our all-hazard guide on our website has that general.

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Checklist of items to have., so we always suggest that they have that. in particular,. For this particular el nino event,. We.

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Want them to think about either, a,, a weather alert, radio, and/or,.

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B, signing up to one of the applications that provides.

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Weather alerts.

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and they may already be getting wireless emergency alerts.

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Through their cell phones, if their phones are new within the last couple of years., if they get amber, alerts, they'll get the weather alerts that way also., but the beauty of the weather alert radios is they provide a.

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Redundancy to the fact that phone lines get jammed.

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So you may not get something through on e-mail or text messaging in as timely a manner.

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and thanks to dan's great information,. Our average warning.

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Time for tornadoes is only 13 minutes.

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So that's not a lot of time to get the warning and then be able.

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To react,, especially if it's at night and people are asleep.

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emergency alert], that's why I actually have a weather radio. Next to my bed,.

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Because I want to make sure that I get woke up in order to be.

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Aware of the fact that there is a tornado, warning.

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Libby: right, right. and so, also, alert pinellas notification. System, people can.

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Sign up for that on our website under the emergency management.

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Sally: sure. and the beauty of that is, that's used for any type of an emergency.. So if they go to our website and click on the link to go sign up.

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For alert pinellas,, we use that for any type of an event that we.

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Need to communicate with the citizens. there's also an option when they do sign up online to say, yes,. I.

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Want to receive alerts for severe weather, warnings.

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So it will be another way to get texted or e-mailed or whatever.

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Your choices are and what devices you put in to get notified of severe weather, warnings.

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Libby: all right. final words for our viewers?

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dan:. These tornadoes aren't going to be like our summer.

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Tornadoes. they are going to be a quarter-mile wide and on the ground for 20 miles or more.. So if one happened to come across pinellas county,, it could.

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Go across the entire county.

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if you live in a manufactured home,, think now about what you're going to do. If we're expecting a night of tornadoes.

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Libby: all right. sally,, any other last-minute advice for our citizens?.

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Sally:, I think I would just say, take advantage of what.

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We've posted out on our website.. If you go to our main pinellascounty.org/emergency page, you're, going to find a link there to the el nino page.

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That we've prepared. and in that, we've consolidated information on the weather, alert.

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Radios, information about sandbags and what we'll be doing.

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Or prepared to do for sandbag operations, if localized flooding.

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Becomes an issue., it's a nice place where all of that information is consolidated.

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Together., and the last thing I would mention is on our main page,.

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There is a "stay connected" feature., so there are other ways to receive information,, not just during emergencies..

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So our newsletter and items like that that will keep you posted.

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On these type of events, when we know about them and are putting.

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Libby: all right. thank you, both, for joining us. sally: thank you.

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Dan: thank you.

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Libby: and as sally said,, if you'd like more information about preparing for el nino, visit, pinellas county's, el nino,.

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Website at: and you can also visit pinellas.

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County emergency management's website, at:.

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And if you'd like more information about the el nino.

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Phenomenon and other weather topics, visit the national.

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Weather service's website at:.