Quiet hurricane season shouldn't lessen readiness

An assessment of below average usually is not good news, but when it applies to the hurricane season, it's great news.

With just a little over a month to go in the season and September, historically the busiest month, behind us, it looks like smooth sailing ahead. The 2009 Atlantic season hasn't produced any widespread damage and has been calm enough for emergency officials to start preparing for 2010.

There have been eight named storms in the Atlantic this season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30. They include Hurricane Bill and Tropical Storm Danny, both of which passed offshore, causing some coastal flooding and beach erosion.

Experts attribute the quiet storm season to the El Nino weather phenomenon, which is an unusually warm flow of water that sometimes forms off the northwestern coast of South America. The phenomenon causes a band of upper-level prevailing winds known as the jet stream to shift southward, according to the National Geographic News. When the jet stream blows over the Atlantic Basin -- which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico -- the current creates wind shear, upper-level winds that can disrupt hurricane formation and development.

But we shouldn't be complacent and assume the 2009 season portends things to come. We should join emergency officials in preparing for next season.

William Winn, director of Beaufort County's Public Safety Division and an experienced hand at storm seasons, said it doesn't take a line of storms hitting the South Carolina coast to keep residents alert to the potential dangers.

"In my experience, whether there's a storm threat, the vast majority of people know how to get ready for it. They respond to each storm individually."

Newcomers especially should take note: As emergency officials constantly remind us, it only takes one storm to make a very bad season.