Emergency Management/National Weather Service Partnership Saved Lives During Hurricane Rita

Hurricane Rita as a Catagory 5 storm on September 22, 2005. NASA image.

(Oct. 4, 2005) -- It has been almost a two weeks since hurricane Rita crashed ashore along the southwest Louisiana - southeast Texas coastline. Looking back on that devastating event, National Weather Service Southern Region forecasters and partners are still amazed at the extraordinarily low death toll from such a powerful storm. To date, only two deaths have been directly attributed to the storm.

Steve Rinard, meteorologist-in-charge of the Weather Forecast Office in Lake Charles, La. attributes the low death toll to strong partnerships within the emergency management community. "We can only credit that minimal loss of life to the planning, cooperation and close working relationship between our agency and the vast interrelated group of state, parish, county and local emergency managers and responders," he said.

Compared to the estimated 500 - 600 souls lost when Hurricane Audrey struck the same general area almost 50 years ago, Rinard says direct fatalities related to Hurricane Rita will remain remarkably low. There have been deaths resulting from carbon monoxide poisoning (generators in enclosed areas), isolated falling trees, medical and transportation issues; but, fatalities directly related to wind, storm surge, flooding and tornadoes near point of landfall will remain at rock bottom.

Perhaps this low number is partly a result of the very recent and much publicized Hurricane Katrina strike in the New Orleans/Biloxi area -- or Rita's mid Gulf of Mexico status as a brief category 5 hurricane. Or, perhaps this minimal loss of life is also directly related to the recent modernization of the National Weather Service and the close partnerships developed with the emergency management/response community and the media. Forecasts, emergency response procedures and the flow of critical information relating to Gulf Coast hurricane threat to the public, industry and media have improved significantly the last eight to 10 years.

Hurricane conferences, hurricane hunter aircraft tours, mutual aid associations, emergency management/responder workshops, table-top drills, civic club meetings school tours and open house sessions are just some of the means used to keep the public informed before, during and after big weather events - such as hurricanes.