Be ready for hurricane season that starts Wednesday, Red Cross and officials advise

When Superstorm Sandy was bearing down on Long Beach nearly 10 years ago, Liz Treston said warnings came too late to get out of the storm’s path.
Fatigued by evacuation warnings from Hurricane Irene, she sheltered in place in her Long Beach home, and wrote her Social Security number on an arm in case someone found her after her home was destroyed.

Treston, who now serves as Long Beach city council vice president, joined with the American Red Cross to pass along the lessons learned from Sandy and to stress the need to prepare for the hurricane season that begins Wednesday and ends Nov. 30.

“When you’re told to leave, leave,” Treston said on the Long Beach boardwalk Tuesday at a news conference with state and Long Island emergency officials. “No one told us to leave until the last minute and by then all the bridges off the island were closed.”

Red Cross officials are warning Long Islanders to be ready for this hurricane season, which is forecast to be above-average in the Atlantic Ocean. The Eastern Atlantic is forecast to get 14 to 21 named storms this year, including six to 10 hurricanes (winds above 74 mph) — and three to six of those could be major storms with winds above 111 mph.

The storms have become more intense and frequent because of global warming, Red Cross officials said.

This marks the seventh straight year of an elevated hurricane season and follows deadly storms that have lashed New York, including Hurricane Ida's remnants that killed at least 13 people in Queens and Brooklyn in October.

“It takes just one storm to seriously disrupt and devastate our communities,” Red Cross Long Island board member Stacey Sweet said. “We have been there. The need to get our friends, families and neighbors ready has never been more important than it is right now. Being prepared saves lives.”

Red Cross officials said they were working with volunteers and residents to be prepared for storms, including having an evacuation plan, following news updates and having a go bag ready, which should contain any needed medication, cellphone chargers, cash, batteries, important documents, personal hygiene products and supplies and food for babies and pets.

Officials with National Grid and PSEG Long Island said they had made infrastructure improvements to prevent outages and harden utilities from storms.

The increased frequency of storms means residents should have a plan and not be complacent, said Jackie Bray, commissioner of the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

“I think we all instinctively understand storms are getting more intense, more frequent and larger. I think generally New Yorkers are paying attention to the weather,” Bray said. “We know what happened here in Long Beach 10 years ago. We know what happened in Queens and other parts of the city and Westchester just a year ago with tropical storm Ida, and in order to make sure that we minimize the damage and we stay ahead of these ever-increasing storms, we want to make sure that you New Yorkers have what you need to stay safe.”

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.