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May 17 -- The Atlantic hurricane season is about two weeks away, and many cities in hurricane-prone areas are doing what they can to prepare residents for actions they may need to take to stay safe amid a season that AccuWeather forecasters say is shaping up to be another active one. Hurricane season will officially begin on June 1, but meteorologists are already keeping an eye on one zone for potential development.
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One city that's ramping up preparations and is one of the most vulnerable in the United States due to its location along the Gulf coast, an active corridor for hurricanes as was put on display in 2020, is sea-level New Orleans.
Louisiana was struck by six tropical cyclones, including three hurricanes, in a 2020 hurricane season that decimated record after record last year. The state suffered more direct hits than any other season on record, beating out 2002 with five strikes from Cristobal, Marco, Laura, Delta and Zeta.
Hurricane Sally also nearly brushed the area but headed just east and slammed Alabama. And the hyperactive 2020 season continues to set new records.
Post analysis from the National Hurricane Center released just this week determined that the final storm of the season to slam the area was actually a major hurricane.
On Oct. 28, 2020, Hurricane Zeta roared ashore in southeastern Louisiana with the eye of the storm eventually tracking directly over New Orleans. It was initially rated a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 mph, but the NHC analysis found it was a Category 3 hurricane, packing wind of 115 mph, when it made landfall.
Even nearly 16 years later, Hurricane Katrina, a storm that destroyed a large part of New Orleans and became one of the worst weather disasters in U.S. history, still weighs heavy on the minds of residents in the city. The storm claimed about 1,200 lives and highlighted how many people are unable to evacuate the city without assistance.
Now, the city of New Orleans runs NOLA Ready, featuring safety and preparedness tips, procedures and other information for a number of situations, along with safety and evacuation drills so that all residents can be ready well in advance of the next major storm or hurricane.
One particular focus of health and public safety officials in preparing for the hurricane season is a city-assisted evacuation program. Last week, city officials put plans to the test in a small-scale exercise of the program.
There are an estimated 35,000 people who will need assistance getting out of the city if a mandatory evacuation is ordered.
"There are thousands of individuals in our city who are going to have trouble getting out in case of a mandatory evacuation," Dr. Jennifer Avegno of the New Orleans Health Department told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell.
"For our homebound individuals, for our individuals on dialysis, those in wheelchairs, those with chronic medical needs, those who are having acute medical emergencies, it's going to be even more difficult to evacuate safely."
The exercise helps workers in the city assisted evacuation program prepare for the various different needs and challenges that can arise in helping those with disabilities in the event of an evacuation.
Carl Arredondo, an orientation and mobility specialist and former chief meteorologist at WWL in New Orleans, a position he held for 20 years before retiring in 2019, helped volunteers at the drill by providing feedback on how to best communicate for those with disabilities.
Arredondo was the only local meteorologist on TV during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Years later, he began to lose his vision and was diagnosed with retinal pigmentosa. Arredondo decided to make the difficult decision to step down as chief meteorologist in 2019 just three years after his diagnosis, and he is now helping other people learn how to live and travel safely with impaired vision.
It was after live coverage of a severe weather event in 2018, and he had difficulty reading an alert on the screen that he realized he would not be able to give 100 to his role as a broadcast meteorologist.
"Take two toilet paper tubes, put them to your eyes and walk around like that for a while. That's kind of what retinitis pigmentosa is like, you only have a central vision," Arredondo told Wadell.
