Don't sleep on hurricane season because 2025 was slow

You never know from what direction the winds of change are going to hit you.

As we head into the hurricane season — the National Hurricane Center established June 1 as the start of the Atlantic hurricane season in 1965 — one thing is certain.

Uncertainty.

We might have been at a fever pitch last June 1 because of our area's 2024 deluge which featured three hurricanes, or 2 1/2 depending on whether you considered Debby to be a hurricane or a tropical storm depending on its fluctuations as it made landfall. Whatever the classifications, Debby, Helene and Milton provided us with a trifecta of misery.

When it came to preparation in 2025, we were amped up, and ready. Raise your hand if you had a few extra cases of water in the garage, or 10 cans of Bush's baked beans. Weren't your kitchen junk drawers filled with batteries of all sizes and shapes?

Then, of course, nothing happened.

So in 2026, I would imagine we all are a little more relaxed. You've eaten five of those cans of beans, the batteries were used for the kids' toys, and the water came in handy on those camping trips. None of it has been replaced.

And here we go again.

The AccuWeather 2026 Atlantic hurricane season forecast just arrived in my in-box, and it's awfully tough to determine if it is good news, or bad. It said the Gulf Coast will be at "a heightened risk for tropical impacts this year."

It said we should be expecting 11 to 16 named storms, four to seven hurricanes, two to four major hurricanes (category three or higher), and three to five direct U.S. impacts.

But it's not like a visit from the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales, where it's all scheduled out by area, day, and time. A bad storm could sneak up on us like Debby, or come freakishly from directly out of the west like Milton. Or with some push from the winds, those storms could miss us completely.

While we have had more than our share of hurricanes since Irma started it off in 2017, historically, our area can go years without feeling the brunt of one. Perhaps global warming is changing all that, but don't be surprised, either, if the hurricanes do track elsewhere, for a while.

That quiet period is perplexing because we can get complacent thinking that it is somebody else's problem. Would Manatee County's Emergency Management Division have spent millions on upgrading its tools for preparedness, response and recovery if Irma and Ian hadn't been so devastating? I don't know.

It seems we are getting more tools to help us prepare and react to hurricanes. Manatee County has added Peregrine, a data integration and analytics platform, to held staff members make decisions about hurricane response much faster than in previous years. The software also helps residents find tools and funds for recovery.

AccuWeather has developed its own new tool called the Realimpact Scale for Hurricanes, which is a "six-point rating system (less than 1 to 5) that measures a tropical storm's total destructive capacity. Unlike the traditional Saffir-Simpson scale, which only accounts for wind speeds, it incorporates flooding, rainfall, storm surge, and overall economic damage."

For more information or to access the Realimpact Scale for Hurricanes, go to Accuweather.com.

Locally, we have Heather Hackett continuing her effort to make the Local Relief app a disaster aid and support network in a one-stop format at LocalRelief.com.

Hackett became the founder of the nonprofit in 2022 in an effort to show how people can communicate during disasters. She originally was sparked by the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma in 2017. Hurricane Ian pushed her forward in 2022, and Local Relief became a reality.

"More than an app, we’re a lifeline of communication," Hackett said. "We're a trusted space where locals, organizations, and authorities come together to prepare, survive, and rebuild."

While government information exists on response and recovery, Hackett wants her app to cut through the red-tape with easy to understand instructions for residents to connect with the best avenues of support. That might mean where to find gas after a hurricane, or food and water. She said it is about connecting neighbors with neighbors.

While Hackett's app has grown since 2022, it slowed in 2026's quiet year in our region. She has been flying around the country in an attempt to find national sponsors while tapping into more markets.

Hackett notes that she doesn't claim to be an expert in anything other than disaster communication.

"But consider that some parts of North Carolina were without water for 53 days after Helene," she said. "People were stuck on top of a mountain, or at the bottom. This is about planning for the future. If they are on top of a mountain, we want to find neighbors who can help. Those people might not know which social media platform can help them, and where to find it."

She said the whole point for those in Sarasota and Manatee counties, along with the rest of the country, is to create a kind of Nextdoor (social media site) for disasters. 

Hackett would like to establish a national reach because while a hurricane might miss Manatee County, it will hit somewhere else, and those people will need help, too.

"You don't know which states are going to be impacted more, so we want to strengthen our tools," she said. "Our goal is to combine information about all of the organizations providing free resources."

She urges new Florida residents to check out her site because "New residents don't know what they don't know."

It all takes funds to run. Hackett currently is seeking donations and business partnerships. She said it can be tough to establish relationships.

"I don't fall into any of the categories because (Local Relief) is something that never has existed before," she said. "We have been called the missing link. Disaster communication has been broken, and the problem is a lack of communication."

Those who want to help Hackett in her quest can attend her Bingo: Before the Storm event at 6 p.m. June 16 at Gold Coast Eagle Distributing in Lakewood Ranch. Tickets are $100 for an evening of Bingo, raffles, food and drinks (donated by Gold Coast). Raffle items will include a generator and jewelry.

"We're doing a fundraiser to help us be ready for storm season," Hackett said. "This biggest thing is that I want to tell people that Local Relief exists."

Hackett also notes that she is looking for volunteers. There is a Volunteers tab on her website.

"Here in Lakewood Ranch, there are so many people who want to help," she said. "Anyone who wants to help and is tech savvy, that is great. Even high school kids who need volunteer hours, I could use their help."

She also warns not to predict that all the storms will miss the region this season.

"Mother Nature is a woman," Hackett said. "So don't try to predict what will happen."