Hurricane Seminars

The Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency often sponsors Hurricane Seminars. These events bring together leaders from the emergency management and weather forecasting communities to discuss the prospects for an active season, and find ways to better prepare Rhode Islanders should a major hurricane threaten the Ocean State this year.

Past speakers in our seminar have included Lt. Governor Charles Fogarty, Glen Fields and Dave Valleee of the National Weather Service in Taunton, MA, Diana Mc Clure, Director of the Institute for Business and Home Safety, Major General Centracchio, the Director of the Rhode Island EMA, and Al Scappaticci, RIEMA's executive Director. Rhode Island's local Meteorologists Gary Ley, R.J. Heim, Tony Petrarca, and Steve Cascione are also on hand to field questions from those attending the conference.

An underlying theme of past meetings focuses on the fact that that despite recent impacts from Hurricanes' Bob in '91, and Gloria in '85, the Ocean State still has not been exposed to the forces seen in either the great Hurricane of 1938 or Carol in 1954. Both of these storms struck close to high tide and brought the strongest portion of the systems directly over Rhode Island. Were a storm similar to the '38 Hurricane or Carol to strike this year, the damage would be far more extensive then anything witnessed in Bob or Gloria. This unsettling fact is why Rhode Islanders need to take watches and warning seriously, and keep an eye on any system lurking in the Atlantic this season.