Hurricane Season Begins: CPA Bob Baldwin and Chief Meteorologist Bill Walsh Offer Preparedness Tips

May 30, 2006: Reminding Rotarians that hurricane season begins again on June first, Bruce Murdy introduced our two speakers who were quite familiar with the subject of hurricane preparedness. Bill Walsh, the Chief Meteorologist for Channel 5 News talked about what we might expect this year according to predictions and our own Bob Baldwin took a few minutes to offer his suggestions about how to protect and preserve financial documents in the event of a hurricane.

Taking some preliminary steps to protect financial documents before the advent of a hurricane will pay huge dividends in the event of a hurricane disaster according to Bob Baldwin who is President of the South Carolina Association of CPA’s. Bob began by asking how many Rotarians had actually read their insurance policies well enough to know how their carrier defined the term “hurricane”. The type and kind of insurance we carry as well as how much risk we assume is critical in the event of a hurricane. Bob warned that when a hurricane is approaching the coast it is already too late to begin wondering whether our insurance coverage has kept up with increasing property values

Any disaster preparedness plan should include provisions to protection and transport critical financial documents especially in the event that an evacuation becomes necessary. By taking the time to scan and copy relevant information onto a CD, copies of insurance policies, credit cards, lists of important contact numbers, photographs of possessions, warranties and medical information can easily be taken with you when you leave town. In the event a weather disaster occurs, the recovery process will be much easier if you have that information at your fingertips. Mr. Baldwin mentioned three web sites we might want to consult when constructing a disaster preparedness plan: The sites are: www.redcross.org; www.ready.gov and www.360financialliteracy.com. In his final comments, Bob reminded us to be absolutely sure that we password protect any CD containing our personal financial information .

Bill Walsh, the two-time Emmy award winning meteorologist at Channel 5, has been covering hurricanes for 20 years here in the lowcountry. In a normal hurricane season an average of 11 storms will be named. This year, it is predicted that 17 storms will large enough to be named, 9 will become hurricanes and 5 will be considered major hurricanes of a category 3 or more. Regardless of whether predictions call for a quiet season or an active season, the only important consideration turns out to be that one hurricane which happens to be bearing down on the Charleston coastline.

One reason hurricanes represent such a danger is due to the rapidity with which the intensity can change. Mr. Walsh told us that hurricane Hugo was rated a category 2 the morning before it hit. By 5 pm that afternoon it had been upgraded to a category 4. Because flooding is the single greatest threat associated with a hurricane, leaving when a voluntary evacuation is announced is crucial. One only has to move inland and away from the coast in order to avoid the potential storm serge.

Even though we have learned lessons from other hurricanes and now have good predictive systems and solid emergency evacuation procedures in place, having to pack up and leave when a hurricane approaches is one of the the few trade offs we must make in exchange for living in such a beautiful city on the coast.

Contributed by Helen Reynolds, Keyway Committee