Virginia Tidewater AreaSevere Weather Safety Guide

This guide has been produced to offer guidance and information on how you and your family should prepare for and, if necessary, live through a Hurricane, Tropical Storm or Severe Weather Phenomena that hits the Tidewater area of Virginia, USA.

Now is the right time to prepare for such an event, not when it is 72 hours away.

We ask you to take time to read through this information and, by taking steps that are appropriate to your particular circumstances, you will ensure that you are prepared and best equipped to deal with any severe weather storm.

Risk AreaIt is a well-known fact that the Virginia Tidewater area is susceptible to severe weather phenomena, with most of us already having experienced hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes & flooding. Without doubt, these destructive weather patterns are sufficiently volatile to endanger life and/or damage property. Although severe weather can occur at any time throughout the year, analyses of meteorological and oceanographic data for the Hampton Roads area indicate the most serious threat comes from hurricanes & tropical storms and are most likely to occur during the annual hurricane season between 1 Jun - 30 Nov, with August and September proving to be the most active periods.

The National Hurricane Center classifies hurricanes according to their potential for producing extensive damage on a scale of 1 to 5. Much of the damage caused by a hurricane is a result of a "storm surge"; a large dome of water pushed up in advance of a hurricane prior to making landfall. This dome of water can exceed 20 feet depending upon the strength of the hurricane and tide conditions.

TYPE CATEGORY WINDS (MPH) SURGETropical Storm - 39 - 73 -

Hurricane 1 74 - 95 4 - 5 FeetHurricane 2 96 - 110 6 - 8 FeetHurricane 3 111 - 130 9 - 12 FeetHurricane 4 131 - 155 13 - 18 FeetHurricane 5 >155 > 18 Feet

Storm Surge Inundation MapThis map indicates the projected hurricane storm surge flooding along coastal areas.

Every resident in the Hampton Roads area needs to know the risk of storm-surge flooding. The threat of storm surge is the reason emergency officials would order an evacuation. An evacuation order does not mean that everyone needs to leave in order to stay safe. Local officials will announce the exact areas where people need to evacuate. If emergency officials order an evacuation for your area, leave immediately and when you can, contact the NASG(TW) Support staff and let them know that you are safe and where you are staying and how you can be contacted. Please remember that telephone lines may be down and making local calls may be difficult.

"Preventing the loss of life and minimizing the damage to property from hurricanes are responsibilities that are shared by all."

So are you ready? Let’s find out…….

Family safety If you live in a storm surge area, especially those housed near the coast, make sure you have a plan in place detailing where you are likely to relocate to should the evacuation order be given and by what route you will get there.

It is likely that some public utilities will fail during a weather storm and it may take a number of days before utilities can be restored. Loss of electricity is not necessarily a reason to move your family from the home, however, if sanitation is compromised, serious consideration needs to be given to finding alternative accommodation.

Give consideration to purchasing a generator. Have you taken out insurance?

SuppliesSince we live in an area that is vulnerable to hurricanes, it is a good idea to set aside certain supplies at home throughout the year in preparation for major emergencies or disasters. After a hurricane watch is issued, there is usually a very high demand and short supply of many items.

For example, a basic hurricane preparedness kit would include the following:

o Water – at least 1 gallon daily per person for 3 to 7 days

o Food – at least enough for 3 to 7 days to include non-perishable packaged or canned food / juices, non-electric can opener, cooking tools/fuel, paper plates/plastic utensils, etc.

o Medical – First Aid Kit , medicines to include necessary prescription drugs

o Hygiene – Toiletries, moisture wipes or other items to maintain cleanliness

o Flashlight / Radio – Battery operated, candles or kerosene lamps

o Telephones – Fully charged cell phone and a traditional (not cordless) telephone set

o Cash – Banks and ATMs may not be available for extended periods

o Entertainment – Toys, Books, Games

o Vehicle fuel tanks filled

o Pet care –ample supply of food and water, a carrier or cage, muzzle and leash.

If you stay at home The decision to stay at home is not an easy one. If you are in a coastal area or are in an area prone to flooding, you may be placing yourself and your family in great risk. But if you do decide to stay at home, here is a list of things to do:

Stay indoors within an inner room on the lowest level away from doors and windows; move furniture away from exposed doors and windows.

Do not go out in the brief calm during passage of the hurricane eye. The lull sometimes ends suddenly and winds return from the opposite direction. Winds can increase in seconds to 75 mph or more.

If power is lost, turn off major appliances to reduce power "surge" when electricity is restored.

Protect your property from damage without taking any unnecessary risks. Temporary repairs may reduce further losses from wind and water, but be careful!

Keep a continuous communications watch: keep radio or television tuned to receive information from official sources. Unexpected changes can sometimes call for last minute relocations.

Remain calm! Your ability to cope with emergencies will help other members of your family. Stay calm, reassuring and use common sense. Use the telephone or cellular phones only in the event of an emergency or life-threatening situation.

If you evacuate If State authorities order an evacuation, the appropriate military commands will do the same. Regardless of whether an evacuation is ordered or you make the decision to move your family for their safety, the following action items are suggested:

Know where you are going and leave early, providing sufficient time to avoid heavy evacuation traffic. Evacuate in daylight if possible with a full tank of gas. Take only your most valuable possessions with you; otherwise place them in high points away from flooding within your home. Listen to your car radio for additional emergency information or evacuation routing problems.

Secure your home by unplugging appliances and turning off electricity and the main water valve.

Inform the NASG(TW) Support Staff where you are going and how to get in contact with you.

If time permits, and you live in an identified surge zone, elevate furniture to protect it from flooding or better yet, move it to a higher floor.

Bring pre-assembled emergency supplies and warm protective clothing. Ensure you have blankets and

sleeping bags in the vehicle. Lock up the home and leave.

IF IN DOUBT, GET OUT! Evacuation routes

If you decide to evacuate the local area, the following 2 routes inland are recommended.

I264/Route 58 West towards Suffolk.

I64 North towards Richmond.

Communications

Telephone & Cellular Phone CommunicationsMake only emergency telephone calls. Keep all calls brief. Report emergencies to 911. Be respectful of the fact that emergency agencies and others involved with life or death emergencies will need to use the communications systems. Telephone and cellular phone services will either fail or become overloaded during a major emergency or disaster. Be prepared not to have services available.

Maintaining ContactIf your planned evacuation location changes before, during or after a hurricane, please ensure that you keep the NASG(TW) Support Staff informed. Constantly monitor sources of information before, during and after a hurricane for instructions on returning to evacuated areas and guidance on returning to work.

BayBrits websiteFor as long as internet services are available, the BayBrits website will be maintained and will provide updated information on evacuation orders, contact information and guidance on returning to work.

Returning after severe weatherIf you evacuated your home after an evacuation order was issued, delay return until authorized or when recommended by local authorities or military Commander. It is recognized that if extensive hurricane damage in the Hampton Roads area takes place, you may be pre-occupied with re-establishing your home and situating your family. It may be difficult or perhaps impossible for you to report to work immediately on a full time basis.

Checklist on returning

Beware of outside hazards: Watch out for loose or dangling power lines. Many lives are lost by electrocution! Treat all downed lines as live wires and do not touch them. Report the fallen power lines to your local power company or police. Stay inside your car if a wire is touching it, and wait for help to arrive.

Walk or drive cautiously: debris-filled streets are dangerous. Use hard-soled shoes. Poisonous snakes and rodents may be a hazard. Washouts may weaken roads and bridge structures that may collapse under vehicle weight.

Guard against spoiled food: Food may spoil if refrigerator power is off for more than a few hours. Freezers will keep food for several days, if doors are not opened after power failure. Do not refreeze food once it begins to thaw.

Do not use water until safe: Use your emergency supply or boil water before drinking until officials declare the water safe. Check with your local health department or emergency management agency regarding water purification procedures. Report broken water or sewer mains to proper authorities.

Loss of electrical power: If you and others have lost power, call Dominion Virginia Power using 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357). Give your name, address and the general area of the outage. If the line is busy, try again later. A busy signal means others are also reporting outages. Leave a light on so you will know when power is restored.

ReimbursementsIf you are ordered to vacate you home, you will be able to claim back hotel charges.

Should you choose to leave your home and find alternative accommodation, under certain circumstances the Embassy may approve reimbursement of your hotel costs. For example, if you lose services such as sanitation or you have an infant and the loss of utilities leaves you with no choice but to vacate to a hotel, under these circumstances the Embassy would look favorably on your case for submitting a claim.

Please remember to retain all receipts. These will be needed when submitting a claim.

The responsibility to evacuate ultimately lies with you and your family. Their and your safety is the most important thing to consider, even though you

may not be entitled to reclaim the costs it takes to preserve it!

Local Services/Utilities Contact Information Police, fire, rescue: 911

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach Line: 427-3580; then press:

• evacuation information, 492

• drinking water tips, 513

• hurricane terms, 625

• hurricane preparedness, 626

• information on basic supplies, 628

• after the hurricane, 632

• hurricane bulletins, 633

• shelter information, 630

• Public information: 427-4111 VA Pilot Emergency Infoline: 640-5555, 1237 Norfolk Norfolk City Line: 664-4010 Police Non-emergency information: 441-5600

Portsmouth Emergency Services office: 393-8551 City information: 393-8432

Chesapeake Office of Emergency Services: 547-6464

Suffolk Police: 925-6415; at night, 925-6350 Information: 934-3111 Emergency Services: 925-6414

Electricity Virginia Power: 858-4660

Dominion Power 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357)

Natural Gas Virginia Natural Gas: 466-5550; after 5 p.m., call 466-5500 Suffolk: 539-2376; after 5 p.m., call 873-6200 Hampton: 873-1322; after 5 p.m., call 873-6200 Newport News: 873-6200 Commonwealth Gas: 399-3961 or 1-800-544-5606

Telephones Bell Atlantic of Virginia: 611 GTE-Virginia: 1-800-483-1000 Cox communications support 757) 224-1111

Water/SewageUtility Recovery systems: (317) 356-8980

Traffic Highway Helpline: 1-800-367-7623 Info line: 640-5555, press 7874

Insurance Claims National Insurance Consumer Helpline: 1-800-942-4242 Virginia State Corporation Commission consumer hotline: 1-800-552-7945.

Pets SPCA of Virginia Beach: 427-0070 Norfolk SPCA: 622-3319

Useful Websites

Virginia Hurricane Evacuation Guide:http://www.virginiadot.org/travel/resources/hurricaneEvacuation1.pdf

Hurricane Shelters in South Hampton Roads:http://www.fincen.uscg.mil/pdf/Encl9_I5530.1_Emergency_Shelters.pdf

NASG Tidewater Det TeamDuty Mobile (24hr) 001 757 232 6633

Thank you for taking the time to read the Tidewater Severe Weather guide, we hope that it has provided you with useful information and will enable you and your family to remain safe, calm and prepared for such events in the future.

A word from Lt Cdr Gordon Jones:

A Guide to Weather Warnings in the USA

The US National Weather Service (NWS) uses a series of specifically worded terms when discussing hazardous weather that the UK Met Office doesn’t. It can be quite disturbing the first time (or even the sixth time) that your TV viewing gets disturbed by the siren and the warning that your region has been placed under a severe thunderstorm watch, or even worse a tornado watch it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re about to be dragged of like Dorothy and find yourself surrounded by Munchkins and flying monkeys!

The most important thing about these severe weather events is that the best solution for getting through them is to be prepared, NSAG(TW) has a list of the recommended contents for an emergency box and you can also get good information from Ready Virginia (http://www.vaemergency.gov/readyvirginia) or from Ready Hampton Roads (http://readyhamptonroads.org/Practitioners/HREMC.aspx). Ready Hampton Roads also includes high resolution storm surge maps so you can determine which risk zone your house is in, normally when flooding is announced they will announce it by city and by zone, so you need to know if you are in a “Virginia Beach Category 2” or similar.

Types of Hazardous Weather

The NWS releases warnings for a number of different types of hazardous weather, the three which are of most interest are below;

Severe Thunderstorms – These are much more active than the majority of storms that we are used to experiencing in the UK, normally accompanied by very strong winds in excess of 60mph and very heavy rain leading to local flooding.

Tornado – A tornado is very difficult to forecast very far in advance, a storm may be forecast to have the potential for creating tornados (a tornado watch) but the actual formation of a tornado would typically only come with 5-10 minutes of warning. If a tornado warning is issued the best thing to do is immediately seek shelter, these are often associated with severe thunderstorms so you will not be able to see the tornado due to the storm.

Hurricane – A hurricane is a massive tropical storm system that forms over the sea and which contains very strong winds, a lot of rain and is often associated with flooding. Atlantic Hurricane season runs from 1 May to 30 November, with the Hampton Roads peak being 1 June to 31 October.

Types of notification

The NWS issues two types of notification for severe weather, a watch and a warning.

A watch means that there is a forecast that includes the possibility of severe weather occurring, these are normally released 6 hours before the weather will actually occur for a specific region and are normally issued for a county or a city (or a collective of them). A watch doesn’t mean that the weather will actually occur; the NWS is not mystically better at forecasting the weather than the UK met office. In the specific case of a hurricane warning this is the last opportunity you really have to start stocking up on your emergency pack, but be advised, it’ll be you and a million freaked out Americans fighting over that last pack of batteries and gallon of water in Walmart, you’re much better off planning ahead!

A warning means that the hazardous weather is actually forming AND is going to pass through the area in the warning. This is the point at which you should be sheltering from the hazard and making sure that you are SAFE. Most weather warnings will be issued about 15 minutes to an hour before the storm arrives, but remember that a tornado warning could be much less time. Severe thunderstorms are typically 10-15 miles across, a tornado is typically less than half a mile, and hurricanes can be greater than a hundred miles across.

In summary, a watch means “watch this space, more news may follow”, a warning means “be warned this hazard is occurring in these regions”.

If you have more questions the please feel free to bring them up on Viva Virginia on Facebook or on Bay Brits.

Gordon