When hurricane season meets COVID-19
Today I have a new story at The Intercept about what it means for hurricane season — which started June 1 — to overlap with this pandemic. I spoke with experts who have studied hurricanes, disaster response and evacuations for years, and aimed to lift up what will be most challenging, different, and how officials are hoping to plan for it.
One of the main differences that really jumped out at me: in past years when there have been major hurricanes, scores of volunteers from other states have come down to help deliver relief. Also many people who lack the means to leave their state during an evacuation might go stay with a neighbor or a friend whose house is on higher ground. Management experts say they expect volunteer capacity to be greatly diminished this season, and many households to be far more reticent about welcoming others into their homes. Even the calculus many might make after months of being told to stay at home combined with a new order to evacuate could be really confusing, especially if people are worried about how social distancing might work. The plan right now is to have all shelters abide by social distancing rules — but that also could require far more capacity than we’re used to. Something that would help avoid a lot of chaos is working now to keep cases as low as possible. You can read about all these questions and where FEMA is at here.