Are You Ready for Hurricane Season?

Employees urged to review their service categories

By Marsha Green

Friday, May 29, 2009

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Durham, NC -- Forecasters predict a near normal Atlantic hurricane season for 2009: nine to 14 tropical storms with four to seven storms developing into hurricanes

Despite being about 150 miles from the coast, the Triangle area has been regularly battered by tropical storms, hurricanes and other severe weather. Last September, for example, Duke officials, monitoring Tropical Storm Hanna as it crawled toward North Carolina, relocated undergraduate students at the Marine Lab in Beaufort as a precaution. Hanna eventually made landfall near the border between North and South Carolina.

“Prepare for each and every season regardless of the seasonal outlook,” said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster for Climate Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Even a near- or below-normal season can produce landfalling hurricanes, and it only takes one landfalling storm to make it a bad season.”

Hurricane season lasts from June 1 to Nov. 30.  As part of preparing for the seaon, employees are encouraged to review their service categories.

“Duke is committed to maintaining essential services and operations during severe weather and other emergencies,” said Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president for Duke Human Resources. “To ensure continuous operations, some staff are required to work during emergency conditions.”

Text MessagingGet the Message

Sign up to receive text messages for notification of severe weather or other emergency conditions.

Text messaging is one of the DukeALERT tools to communicate with the Duke community during an emergency. For more information about Duke's emergency plans, visit the DukeALERT website at: http://www.emergency.duke.edu/

Employees should prepare for severe weather by reviewing service categories with managers and supervisors.  Every employee is in one of three categories:

  • Essential Service: employees are required to report to, or remain at, work.
  • Reserve Service: employees will be contacted by their supervisor at the time of a severe weather event and instructed about whether to report to work.
  • Delayed Service: employees will not report to or remain at work in the case of severe weather.

Supervisors should confirm the service category assignment, review the department’s plan for severe weather and emergency conditions, and explain work expectations based on the assigned service designations with all staff. 

Individuals should also restock their disaster supply kits and ensure family members know how to stay safe during severe weather and its aftermath.

Additional information about Duke’s severe weather policy is available at the Severe Weather Website.  Additional information about how to stay safe during storms is available at the National Hurricane Awareness website.