FEMA Hurricane Prep Week May 24-30 - BoatUS has preparation guides
by D. Scott Croft on 27 May 2015
Boats tossed around in a hurricane can hamper a community’s recovery effort, like these boats that floated into streets and power lines after Hurricane Sandy. D. Scott Croft
With FEMA’s Hurricane Preparation Week upon us (May 24-30), waterfront towns and boating businesses are learning how to better prepare their local boating community. In the aftermath of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, orphaned boats littered the streets around Staten Island, New York’s Great Kills Harbor, hindering the clean up and delaying the return of electrical power. Keeping boats better contained in Sandy would have sped recovery efforts on every front. To help do a better job preparing for this hurricane season, Boat Owner’s Association of The United States (BoatUS) has some no-cost, downloadable hurricane prep guides to help boaters, marinas and boat clubs.
They include:
• Boater’s Guide to Preparing Boats and Marinas for Hurricanes available at
BoatUS is a boater’s guide and has the details on protecting your own boat as well as a marina.
• What Works: A Guide to Preparing Marinas, Yacht Clubs and Boats for Hurricanes available at
BoatUS is a resource for marina and boat club staff, community resiliency managers and local government that focuses on preparing boating facilities.
Local emergency managers, marina or club fleet operators can also download at BoatUS.com/hurricanes a sampling of marina hurricane preparation plans to see how their local marinas compare, learn about the value of strapping down boats stored ashore, and view features on why some marinas fare better than others. If a storm approaches, the website also offers up-to-the-minute storm tracking tools with live satellite images, as well as checklists for what to do before and after a hurricane strikes.
Much of the information comes from BoatUS and its Marine Insurance Catastrophe Team, which over the course of 30 years has seen first hand how better storm preparation can keep boats from drifting away and reduce damage.
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