Hurricane Preparedness

All of us to one degree or another, have been affected this year by severe weather. We haven’t had a hurricane season this active and catastrophically powerful in decades.
The last Category 5 hurricane to hit the Bahamas was in 1992, and Puerto Rico is still recovering from the strongest storm, Hurricane Maria, to hit the tiny island in 89 years.
And the 10th hurricane of the season, Hurricane Ophelia, just formed off the coast of West Africa.
This year, the United States has had the most hurricanes make landfall since 2005.
The difference is, these storms are getting more powerful.

• Are hurricanes getting stronger?
  Since Hurricane Allen in 1980, which had winds clocked at 190 m.p.h. and hit Texas causing very little damage and only a handful of casualties, the U.S. hasn’t seen a storm like Hurricane Maria. Maria is the strongest storm to exist in the Atlantic Ocean outside of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico on record, with maximum sustained winds at 185 m.p.h., and it’s the first major storm to hit Florida since Hurricane Wilma (2005). Why are these statistics important? Because if you look at the frequency and intensity of hurricanes over the last decade it is disturbingly obvious that we have entered into an era of superstorms that are hitting us when and where (the U.S. mainland) they weren’t before, and hitting us harder and more often. Now having all of this information about the nature of hurricanes and severe weather, why wouldn’t you want to be as prepared as you can for the next weather event?
• How good is our power grid?
  One of the most reprehensible losses of life in Florida following Hurricane Irma, were 10 deaths in a nursing home in West Palm Beach which lost power and lost its air conditioner, and by extension its ability to keep its clients safe. Ten elderly Florida residents lost their lives because they literally cooked to death from the Florida summer heat. This terribly grim tragedy is important to highlight because it demonstrates quite vividly that having a generator can mean life or death, depending on your geography (South Florida) and physical health (elderly, infirmed, or disabled). Following the nursing home disaster in West Palm, Gov. Rick Scott instituted an emergency mandate requiring all nursing homes in the state of Florida to install a commercial backup generator, with enough fuel to run for 96 hours. The order goes into effect November 15th.

Don’t take a chance with your safety and security. Get prepared by implementing into your Hurricane Preparedness Plan a residential backup generator or commercial backup generator with FPS today.