Hurricane Specialist Wins Florida Preparedness Program Award

October 26, 2009 — Jack Beven, Ph.D, a senior hurricane specialist at NOAA's National Hurricane Center, has received the first-ever State of Florida Emergency Management Preparedness Program of the Year Award.  The award recognizes an innovative way to prepare for disasters.

The National Hurricane Center’s Dr. Jack Beven has won the first-ever State of Florida Emergency Management Preparedness Program of the Year Award. Photo credit: Dennis Feltgen, NOAA/NHC.

Since 1999, Beven has organized and facilitated a mock hurricane exercise for the State of Florida Emergency Management, often run in real-time, over a three to five day period that simulates a hurricane hitting the state. This includes writing advisories for a storm from the past or a fictional storm that would affect Florida. Several hurricane specialists also record on-camera briefings of the “latest” storm information. 

For the drill, hurricane specialists hold coordination conference calls with state and local emergency officials, giving storm track, wind radii and intensity forecasts, watches and warnings.

Beven accepted the award during an Oct. 19 ceremony in Orlando where he was quick to recognize the hard work and assistance of his colleagues at the National Hurricane Center that make the exercise so successful.