MAY 9, 2023 – The Hurricane Awareness Tour for 2023 returned to the Gulf Coast region during National Hurricane Preparedness Week.
The HAT and National Hurricane Preparedness Week is important for getting information out to the public in order to gain preparedness tips and learn what to do to before storms happen.
“The whole point of the tour is to raise awareness about the upcoming hurricane season,” said Dr. Michael Brennan, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center director. “This helps us at the NHC emphasize the importance of the hurricane mission and talk about how important the collected data is to our forecasters and to get warnings out to the people to keep them safe.”
During the HAT, emergency managers and media were given the opportunity to tour the hurricane hunting aircraft and meet crew members of the Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron WC-130J Super Hercules and the NOAA WP-3D Orion.
The tours of the hurricane hunting aircraft, U.S. Coast Guard equipment, and other public safety equipment and vehicles attracted hundreds of visitors each day, from emergency managers, media members, plus school and public tours with the purpose of encouraging hurricane preparedness before the season starts.
“Having the aircraft and crews here for the tour is a huge draw,” said Brennan. “It is a great way to get people’s attention, because it puts a human face, a name, and a real person on the whole hurricane program, seeing the brave men and women who are flying right into the storm to collect the data.”
This year’s scheduled tour was along the Gulf Coast region starting at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, Lakefront Airport in New Orleans, Louisiana., Jackson Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport in Jackson, Mississippi, the Tallahassee International Airport in Tallahassee, Florida. and the Florida Keys Marathon International Airport, Marathon. However, the final stop for the HAT in Marathon was cancelled due to an aircraft part failure.
Accompanied by NHC hurricane experts and National Weather Service storm specialists, Brennan highlighted the preparedness message.
“This is Hurricane Awareness week so let’s use this week to get ready, to spread the word to let everybody know that there are resources. Working together we can be prepared for hurricane season,” said Brennan.
Brennan said the HAT increases the trust they have with the information that the NHC puts out, seeing the real person behind the information that comes through the aircraft to the hurricane center and knowing there is a human being working on that forecast helps.
“I think it makes it more real and personable, and hopefully more trustworthy,” he said.
He spoke of how NOAA, FEMA, and local agencies are working to get people away from hurricanes, and yet the Hurricane Hunters fly right into storms to get the needed data to save lives.
“It is such a selfless mission, to fly into a storm and it is a key part of the hurricane program, and we have a great partnership,” said Brennan. “I would like to thank everybody for what they do.”
Providing the best weather data was reinforced by Lt. Col. Tobi Baker, 53rd WRS aerial reconnaissance weather officer, who gave interviews and tours of the WC-130J aircraft throughout the HAT explaining the job of the weather officer, the data collected, and how important that data is for the NHC to use in forecasting.
“After we get the call to fly a storm, we will spend anywhere from six-to-eight hours in a storm,” said Baker. “We fly an alpha pattern, which resembles an “X” pattern crossing from outside, through the eyewall into the eye, and back out the opposite side, gathering the best data available, then sending that data back to the NHC for the forecasters to keep the public informed with the most up-to-date information.”
While Baker has worked the HAT before and is used to having to do multiple interviews in a single day and speak with hundreds of people, this was the first time for Capt. Kyle McElhaney, 53rd WRS navigator, who said that it was great.
“It was a little overwhelming at first, but after the trial by fire-hose it got better,” McElhaney said laughing. “It was awesome to talk to people and I was really excited to be there. It was neat to step back and see what we do through other people’s eyes. It rekindled the wonder and aww, also the reason why we are out there, to collect the data to narrow that cone of uncertainty.”
Both Baker and McElhaney reminded people to pay attention to the warnings and to listen to their local government officials about evacuations and use the resources available for preparedness.
Keeping an eye on the weather using sites like hurricanes.gov and weather.gov provided by the national weather service for a local weather outlook is important, but the primary message of the Hurricane Awareness Tour was preparedness.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency regional administrators, Gracia Szczech, Region Four, and Tony Robinson, Region Six, encouraged everyone to sign up for emergency alerts using the applications available from the FEMA website and the FEMA app. These apps will help people better understand what is needed in their emergency kits, and how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
For tips on how to be ready for serious weather more information can be found on websites at Ready.gov, FEMA.gov, and NOAA.gov. There are also downloadable apps that are helpful to prepare yourself and your loved ones.
Story by Jessica Kendziorek
403rd Wing Public Affairs