Homeport Story: An Imaginary City Gets Ready for a Hurricane

The Homeport Story is a minor work of fiction about a major, real problem in Atlantic and Gulf coastal communities - hurricane preparedness. Homeport was invented a few years ago by the National Weather Service of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the resemblance between our model coastal community and dozens of other American cities is strictly intentional. Homeport is a model community because it did something about hurricanes, even though the town had not been touched by one in three generations. The citizens and leaders of Homeport read the hard lesson the hurricane teaches year in and year out: understanding and preparation increase the chances of survival; lack of preparation diminishes them. How Homeport achieved preparedness is the fictional result of educated speculation by National Weather Service personnel, and by their opposites in the Office of Emergency Preparedness, Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, American Red Cross, Office of Civil Defense, and other interested organizations. Many citizens will ask why tax dollars go to prepare for an event which has not materialized in two years, or ten, or fifty. The answer comes not from imaginary Homeport, but from real cities like Galveston, Corpus Christi, Gulfport, New Orleans, Miami, Charleston, Wilmington, and the tragedies played out there. Anywhere along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is Hurricane Country. As you read how Homeport got ready for its hurricane, think of your city, and of yourself. Could you cope with a hurricane? Could your community? Would you survive? We hope this publication helps you answer, yes.