In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

With the hurricane season now picking up in earnest, I wanted to highlight the daily FEMA “National Situation Update”. Every morning, it offers a quick snapshot of FEMA’s activities with information and graphics gathered from a variety of sources including other federal agencies and departments, state and local governments, and the news media. Earlier this month, I visited FEMA’s Situation Room at its Washington headquarters (where the information is collected), which reminded me that I had wanted to highlight this resource on the blog. This morning’s Update reports on the Lockheed Fire, Tropical Storm Claudette as well as the newly-named Hurricane Bill:

As of 5:00 a.m. EDT, August 17, 2009, the center of Hurricane Bill was located approximately 1,160 miles east of the Lesser Antilles.
Hurricane Bill is moving quickly toward the west-northwest near 22 mph; this general motion is expected to continue for the next 24-to-48-hours. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 75 mph. Strengthening is forecast during the next day-or-two, and Hurricane Bill could become a Major Hurricane by Wednesday. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center and Tropical Storm force winds extend outward up to 145 miles. Estimated minimum central pressure is 987 mb (29.15 inches).

To get the daily Update (which complements other FEMA web-based resources), you can go to the Emergency Managers section of the FEMA website here. The agency’s FEMAinFocus Twitter feed also sends it out every morning. Thanks to Dennis Hanlon’s NetControl Twitter feed for originally bringing this to my attention.