WhoDat Nation Alert: The 2011 Hurricane Season Has Started

It’s somehow ironic that when the weather gets hot, training camp is near, and football mania takes first place in every Saints fan’s mind that hurricanes show up to give us something else to worry about.

Well, we don’t have our first one yet, but the season has started; it started June 1st. Everyone on the Gulf Coast and the East Coast needs to start their yearly preparations. For most of us it’s more than a habit, it’s more like something we have genetically coded into us.

For others who are new arrivals to the coast, it’s something you have to learn. It’s better to get an early start on it than it is to be caught by surprise. Often people get careless because they live 200 miles inland, and that’s a mistake.

Hurricanes have a way of going where they want to, no matter what the weather forecasters say. What we need to do is use common sense to stay ahead of major storms before they show up.

I’ve been smack-dab in the middle of  most of the worst hurricanes going all the way back to Carla and Camille, and each experience has taught me something. The most recurring lesson is to be prepared. Having said that, another lesson is to be forewarned.

There’s more to being prepared for storms than hurricane tracking maps, batteries, candles and the like. One very important consideration is who you keep in touch with when things start to look “dicey”…

People in the N’awlins area instinctively turn to the Times Picayune and Nola.com, and I would like to suggest that you should as well. Local stations do the best they can, but for my money these boys have it down to a fine art.

The Times Picayune and Nola.com have never let me down; I have always used their fine reporting to keep the members of two sites I managed and the Saints site I own well informed and safe. I’ll be doing it again this season, and am thankful for their dedication to keeping the people of the Gulf Coast safe.

There’s only one webpage you need to keep track of, it’s the Hurricane Center at Nola.com. Use the link embedded in my last sentence to get familiar with it. One that one page is all the hurricane news and storm tracking data you’ll need to keep your family safe this year.

You’ll be glad you did. Be safe this hurricane season as we start what should be our second Super Bowl run. Who Dat!