NYC OEM: Get Ready For Hurricane Season
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- It's Hurricane Preparedness Week and as former Tropical Storm Beryl makes its way out to sea, officials in New York City are urging residents to ready for hurricane season.
The city's Office of Emergency Management has a new edition of its Ready New York hurricane guide. It's available online and comes in numerous languages.
The guide includes tips on how to prepare for any emergency as well as how to secure your home before a storm hits and how to develop a hurricane disaster plan.
It also has maps of city evacuation zones.
Red Cross officials in New Jersey are also urging residents to be ready in case any storm comes our way.
"Getting ready now can reduce the impact of hurricanes," Mathieu Nelessen, CEO of the American Red Cross North Jersey Region, said in a statement. "If your family has been prepared since last year's hurricane season, now is a good time to revisit and update your plans and check preparedness kits for expired items."
Thousands of area residents were left without power, some for more than a week, after Tropical Storm Irene pounded parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut last August.
SEE: Photos of Hurricane Irene
Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a mandatory evacuation order and New York City subways were shut down for fear of the heavy and unsafe winds.
Last year, emergency management officials said the storm cost New York City at least $55 million in damages and expenses.
Beryl, meanwhile, has been downgraded to a tropical depression after losing wind strength, but forecasters says it's still bringing plenty of rain to the Southeast coast.
The National Hurricane Center says the depression's center is expected to near the South Carolina coast by Wednesday morning, then veer back over the Atlantic where it could regain tropical storm strength.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially starts on Friday.
For more information from the city's OEM, including a hurricane guide and evacuation maps, click here.
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