August 25, 2011: 11:30 A.M.
By Williams Ekanem, (MACTV NEWS)
As Hurricane Irene moves toward the East Coast of the United States, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate and NOAA's National Hurricane Center Director Bill today had a conference call advising people to heed evacuation order.
Bill said during the conference call which MACTV was on the line, that, “people should please heed to evacuation order or notice because of the intensity of the hurricane.”
According to him, although the exact intensity of the hurricane can hardly be predicted, but it is so critical that such notices or warnings are complied with.
The hurricane, they pointed out is currently moving North East towards North Carolina with high wind estimated at 150 miles per hour and FEMA is doing things to get ready for any consequential crisis.
Expatiating on the nature of preparation, Bill stated that pre-posting of food supplies to areas anticipated to be badly affected is going on.
The impact, according to them is not restricted to coastal areas as the inland areas could also be affected through heavy rainfall, flood, power cut etc.
A 5pm advisory, they disclosed would be given later today.
“In advance of the storm, our Incident Management Assistance Teams have been deployed to areas in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, in anticipation of further deployment to potential impact areas along the east coast of the U.S.”, the FEMA official said.
“We’re also pre-staging supplies and commodities along the East Coast to supplement state resources if needed - such as bottled water and meals-ready-to-eat. We’ve set up Incident Support Bases along the East Coast to proactively stage commodities closer to areas potentially affected by severe weather, allowing us to quickly move needed supplies throughout affected states, should they be needed and requested, “they added.
Hurricane Irene is currently making a turn along the East Coast, and forecasts from the National Hurricane Center project the storm could affect an area from Florida to Maine as it moves further north.
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