With August and September being the most active months for hurricanes due to warm water in the ocean, UTRGV has plans in place in case of a storm.
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Pablo Mendez said hurricanes feed off of warm water which makes storms stronger.
“Typically, whenever you have, when the waters are hot in the Atlantic [Ocean] is when you start seeing quite a bit of them get active,” Mendez said.
According to the Office of Emergency Preparedness’ website, hurricane season is from June 1 through Nov. 30.
Mendez said UTRGV, along with his department, is prepared to take action if a tropical event occurs.
“So, we have our plans, of course, and we review them annually,” he said. “And then we also have an Incident Management Team, which is comprised of directors and managers, if you will, of different divisions and programs.”
Mendez also said whenever something develops in the Atlantic Ocean, a notification is sent out to the Incident Management Team.
“Just that even if it’s not going to come our way, it’s just something that’s developing,” he said. “It’s like a, ‘Hey heads up, you know, here’s this thing,’ and I’ll keep on tracking it and we’ll push that information on over to that team. “
According to Mendez, the Office of Emergency Preparedness will work with the campus community regarding classes and work.
“So, for instance, in the previous impact that we had with Hanna, we had some students that were more or even employees that were more greatly impacted than others,” Mendez said. “The general advice to the professors were to work with the student, you know, and also with the supervisors to work with your employee or your staff member,” Mendez said.
Sociology Senior Vanessa Cisneros said she was impacted by hurricane Hanna and had to move to a new apartment due to flooding but is preparing in case of another storm.
“The new apartments that I moved to, I made sure that they were, like properly structured,” Cisneros said. “I also got batteries and a portable charger that I keep as backup, you know, just to have stuff, you know, on the side, should, you know, electricity go out. I think that also helped me prepare for the next one, should there, you know, should there be another one.”
Mendez recommends planning ahead in case of another storm and not try to do everything at the last minute, such as having an evacuation plan, evacuating pets with their owners and refiling prescribed medication.
“If you evacuate somewhere, did you look ahead of time to where … that area is that you’re going to evacuate to and do they provide that service there, if they do, what do you need to preregister for that?,” Mendez said. “Or what do you need to get set up to be able to have those services there?”
According to Mendez, the Office of Emergency Preparedness’ website does not only contain information for UTRGV but local areas as well.
In case of a hurricane, the campus community will be notified through email and UTRGV’s social media platforms.
FOR VAQUERO NEWS, I’M VICTOR RAMIREZ.
