By AJ Swartwood - Talk Radio News Service
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Craig Fugate urged coastal states on Tuesday to take precautionary measures against a potentially destructive Hurricane Earl, currently a Category 4 hurricane.
Fugate assured that his agency will be well prepared for Earl itself. “We’re taking steps to aggressively prepare should a hurricane make landfall along the East Coast,” he said.
According to FEMA’s tracking technology, the storm should move along the U.S.’ northeast coast without ever making landfall.
However, Fugate cautioned residents in those areas to be prepared for a worst-case scenario without going immediately into panic mode. “We want to have people ready to go,” he said, adding that although the center of the storm may not make landfall, its impact could result in inconveniences such as storm swells, fallen trees and power outages.
Fugate stressed the fact that FEMA has taken a more proactive role in preparation for this storm, likely hoping to ease the bad memories of a heavily scrutinized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.