Tip Sheets

Jose on the way, East Coast residents need to prepare today

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Hurricane Jose is slated to bring tropical storm conditions to the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, including heavy rain and hazardous surf, according to forecasters at the Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC).


Keith Tidball

Senior extension associate & assistant director

Keith Tidball is the assistant director for disaster education at Cornell Cooperative Extension and a faculty fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University. He has experienced multiple disaster response and recovery deployments, including work in post-Katrina New Orleans, in New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy, and in Joplin, Missouri, following the devastating tornado of 2011. It’s not clear yet if Jose will make landfall in the United States, but he says individual preparedness is still very important.

Tidball says:

“As national disaster response assets and resources are stretched by the devastation brought about by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, individual preparedness will play an even more critical role for those who may feel the impacts of Hurricane Jose. Every single citizen must quickly get up to speed and prepare themselves and their families.

“As we learned with Harvey and Irma, even if you don’t think you will have to leave your home, you should practice and prepare to evacuate, or make sure you are prepared to ride out the storm should that be your only choice.

“New Yorkers should practice their hurricane preparedness plans, and inspect their supplies and kits. We are only halfway through a hurricane season that seems destined to produce a record number of damaging storms."

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