Preparing For Hurricane Season, Looking Back At Last Season

Just over two weeks away from what some forecasters have said will be an "explosive" hurricane season and the folks who keep residents safe have been getting prepared.

The Governor's Hurricane Conference continues in West Palm Beach, where National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan looked back on 2023.

"It was pretty busy in terms of the number of named storms. We had 20, which is well above average, but only seven of those went on to become hurricanes and we had three major hurricanes, of course Idalia being one of those that hit Florida here."

But he says it's important for emergency managers from across the state to be ready to act in a season with forecasts calling for as many as 25 named storms.

Idalia was a Category 3 storm that made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida last August.

12 fatalities are associated with the hurricane, but Brennan says there were no storm surge deaths.

"It is easy to sort of try to wave that away by saying that's not the most populated area of the state. But if you look at the statistics, there are more than 40,000 people that lived within the storm surge warning area in the three hardest hit counties, Taylor, Dixie and Levy and so this is a real success."

The Director was talking about how storm surge forecasting has vastly improved.

The conference wraps up tomorrow.

Hurricane Season starts June 1st.