We are slightly over a month into this hurricane season. Good reminders for personal preparedness, including disaster supplies, can be found in UF’s Hurricane Survival Guide. Below are a few links to have handy for work this season and a note on Alachua County’s new emergency notification system.
- Hurricane Forecasts. Everyone has their favorite sites and sources for monitoring tropical weather, and that approach is appreciated. However, UF generally follows forecasts from the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service-Jacksonville. It is a good idea to bookmark these links in your browser for current weather information.
- National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/. Besides official forecasts for each storm, NHC provides two-day and five-day graphical outlooks on the main page which display potential storm formation.
- NWS-Jacksonville Briefing: http://www.weather.gov/media/jax/briefings/nws-jax-briefing.pdf. Updated when significant weather threatens the area, this link contains a PDF PowerPoint or multi-media briefing on the current situation.
- UF Campus Forecast from NWS-Jacksonville: http://ufl.to/nws. Site will post any watches/warnings impacting campus as well as a detailed forecasts.
- UFDEM Hurricane Tracking Page: https://emergency.ufl.edu/weather-information/hurricane-tracking/. Our department’s page contains all of the key links in one location and others, such as model plots and satellite images.
- Alert Alachua. Similar to UF Alert, Alachua County Emergency Management recently launched a notification service. Employees and off-campus students are encouraged to participate in order to receive emergency notifications involving the community. Sign-up is available on the County’s site at AlertAlachua.com. Additionally, the “ContactBridge” app by Everbridge can be downloaded from your phone’s app store to receive the County notifications. Anyone who previously registered with the County’s CodeRED system will need to sign-up again. Live outside Alachua County? Visit www.floridadisaster.org/alertflorida/ to find your local notification system.
Sherri Mason Swilley, CPC, CHCO
Assistant Director
Community Health and Family Medicine