April 13, 2007

Hurricane season is just around the corner, and forecasters expect it to be a very active year.

Even though storms have hit folks in the east hard before, some don't have the supplies they need or an evacuation plan in place -- but the Carteret County Health Department is trying to change that.

Nine On Your Side's Philip Jones went along with a survey team to see how prepared people really are when a storm hits our coast.

People who live along the Crystal Coast know it's never too early to start getting ready for hurricane season.

"It's becoming that time of year again, so you need to start thinking about being prepared," said Sandra Howarth, who lives in Mill Creek.

That's why the Carteret County Health Department and graduate students from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health hit the streets on Thursday and Friday. They're surveying folks in 250 homes across the county.

"Well, I think it's certainly a major responsibility of ours," said Sandra Malone, the county's preparedness coordinator.

Armed with 30 questions and handheld computers that will allow them to quickly process the data they collect, the surveyors are hoping to gauge how well folks along the coast are prepared to handle a storm -- or whether they're prepared at all, for that matter.

Malone says the county can never do too much to make sure people are ready to act when severe weather strikes.

"I don't think we're ever well-educated enough about hurricanes," said Malone.

But by hitting front porches across the county, they're hoping folks will know when to hit the road when a hurricane is heading our way.

Many of the folks the surveyors interviewed say they'd wait until about 12 to 24 hours before they expect a storm to hit, to evacuate the area. But county officials say it would take at least that long to evacuate the area.

They recommend that folks get ready to evacuate early -- and that all of us begin preparing a kit with several days worth of food and water.