Hurricane Season Looms as Village Prepares for Worst

Rockville Centre residents should break out their umbrellas, raincoats and goulashes because it's going to be a wet and wild hurricane season.

The National Weather Service is forecasting nearly 20 named storms, six intense storms, and 12 hurricanes – all of which are about double the average amount – to hit the South Shore of Long Island during this year's hurricane season, which peaks in the beginning of September and lasts through October.

With the expected hurricane season, Rockville Centre officials are doing their best to ensure residents' safety.  Just as they did during the March nor'easter, the village is using the National Incident Management System (NIMS), a platform that provides for local and multi-agency responses in case of an emergency. 

Jeff Kluewer, spokesman for the village, said he is also urging people to sign up for a village alert system that calls residents' cell phones in case the village loses power.

"We will post information on our website, use all available media and initiate a reverse 911 notification," he said. "Because we expect to lose electricity and telephone landlines in a major hurricane, we are urging residents to register their cell phone numbers with the Swift911 system on our website to receive emergency notifications if landlines are not working."

Officials added that residents should prepare a "go-kit" in case of any catastrophe. Aside from the obvious items — water, non-perishable food, money and first-aid kits — Gary Conte, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said it's important to keep important documents that could be lost in a flood or other disaster.

 "It is also very important to have documentation, be it birth certificates, social security cards or insurance papers in case something happens," Conte said. " You must be ready to leave the house on short notice."

While this is expected to be one of the worst hurricane seasons on record, the village is already planning ahead for future seasons.

"We're pursuing purchasing a generator for the Recreation Center so that it could be used as a shelter in an emergency, and installing additional phone lines to receive calls and disseminate information," Kluewer said. "They consider Long Island to be overdue for a hurricane since the last one was Gloria 25 years ago."