City of Southport urging long-time and new residents to prepare for hurricane season

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — The start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season is less than three weeks away and the City of Southport is encouraging both long-time and new residents to be prepared before any storms take aim for the Cape Fear.

The city hosted a Hurricane Expo at the Southport Community Building on East Bay Street Thursday evening. About 25 residents showed up and dozens of employees from a number of city departments attended.

WWAY Chief Meteorologist Lee Haywood shared about recent hurricanes that have severely impacted the region. He was followed by WWAY Evening Anchor Jeff Rivenbark who explained how the TV station ramps up for wall-to-wall coverage when a hurricane or tropical storm is expected to impact the WWAY coverage area.

Chief Charles A. Drew with the Southport Fire Department then gave a presentation covering a range of topics including how city staff monitor conditions during a storm at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), and the criteria necessary for issuing voluntary or mandatory evacuations.

While there are many places in which you may obtain storm updates and information, Drew emphasized the importance of Southport residents getting their information from a primary source — the city’s Facebook page “Southport NC Emergency Information” and other trusted “local” social media sites updated in real time by staff in the city’s EOC.

In addition to signing up for alerts and warnings — now is the time to make a plan, practice emergency drills and test your family’s communication plan. You should also safeguard important documents, plan with neighbors, know evacuation routes and assemble or update your emergency supply kit. 

Near the end of the presentations, about a dozen representatives from various city departments came forward to answer questions from the audience.

“We bring in different departments to talk about everything from the actual prep of the storm, during the storm like what to keep in your emergency kits to keep with your family at your home, and after the storm when we are doing damage assessments and what process needs to be done in order to rectify that,” said City of Southport Public Information Officer ChyAnn Ketchum.

The city has created packets of material containing important hurricane preparedness information.

“We do have a kit that has various information from FEMA that you can use as a checklist essentially while you are preparing or creating your emergency preparedness kit,” Ketchum added.

You may pick these free packets up at City Hall located at 1029 N. Howe Street in Southport.