How to Prepare for Hurricane Season
Florida’s hurricane season is active through June 1 through Nov. 30 — and National Hurricane Preparedness Week is May 5-11 — making now a great time to familiarize yourself with UCF’s hurricane policies and develop a personal safety plan.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is estimated to be highly active. Projections suggest 24 named storms, with 11 anticipated to become hurricanes, according to The Weather Channel and Atmospheric G2. Six hurricanes are forecasted to become Category 3 or higher, presenting substantial threats to coastal and inland regions.
University and Personal Planning
At UCF, teams plan and train for hurricane season year-round. UCF’s Emergency Management team works hard to prevent, prepare for, manage and recover from a variety of threats to UCF, including severe weather.
UCF is a designated StormReady university through the National Weather Service.
In addition to the work being done at the central level, led by the Department of Emergency Management, we encourage all departments to evaluate their own hurricane procedures and staffing plans at this time, in advance of an imminent storm.
When tropical weather systems are threatening, Emergency Management is in communication with our local National Weather Service office in Melbourne, NOAA and the National Hurricane Center. If a serious storm or hurricane threatens our region, Governor Ron DeSantis and UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright have the authority to cancel classes or close campuses. UCF often does so in consultation with other area colleges, school districts and government officials.
We encourage students and UCF employees to put together their own hurricane safety kits and to create a plan with their families and loved ones should a storm impact Central Florida.
Prepping a Hurricane Kit
Knights should assemble a hurricane kit, which should provide enough essentials to survive at least three days. Kits should include:
- Water
- Nonperishable food
- Weather radio
- Flashlight
- First aid kit
- Batteries
- Can opener
- Cash
- Cell phone charge
- Identification cards
- Any necessary prescription medications
This year’s Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday extends June 1-14. This two-week tax holiday allows Floridians to prepare for hurricane season while saving money on essential disaster preparedness items.
How to Stay Informed
The UCF Alert text and email message system will be used to keep the university community notified of severe weather threats. All students and employees automatically are signed up to receive these messages, and settings can be updated via myUCF. A parent, spouse or other secondary contact’s email address also can be added, allowing them to receive the updates.
In addition to UCF Alert messages, details about any class cancelations, impact to services or campus closures will be shared on the UCF homepage, and @UCF and @UCFPolice on social media. Faculty members also are encouraged to post any changes to class assignments due to campus closures on Webcourses.
UCF has been impacted by hurricanes before, and we have been able to weather those storms while maintaining our strong commitment to academic excellence and student success.
While we hope for a hurricane-free season, it is always best to prepare and educate yourself in advance of a storm, especially in time such as now that requires extra considerations and flexibility.
Let’s each do our part by staying aware and prepared, and together, we’ll make UCF a safer place for all of us.
Latest UCF Today
- UCF Researcher Is Developing Algorithms to Further Space, Sea ExplorationThe work will help protect spacecraft from colliding with objects like asteroids and satellites.
- UCF Professor Awarded Fulbright Grant to Conduct Brain Health Research in FinlandAs a Fulbright Program Distinguished Chair award recipient, Su-I Hou will lend her expertise to a research project that aims to slow cognitive decline.
- UCF Art Graduates to Make a Difference Through FPEP ProgramUtilizing art and their life experiences with incarceration, Alexander Alvarez ’24MFA and Jim Wysolmierski ’24MFA are looking to inspire incarcerated students.
- UCF Student’s Primitive Asteroids Work Provides Context for Further Research, Future NASA MissionsBrittany Harvison studied the composition of families of ancient asteroids to better understand the history of our solar system and if they may have carried water to Earth.
- Robot Rovers on the “Moon”: Lunabotics Challenge Preps Students for Space CareersCollege teams, including a group of Knights, will build robot rovers and compete at the new Regolith Bin at UCF’s Exolith Lab before the best crews advance to finals at Kennedy Space Center.
- Pegasus Professor Returns from Fulbright Specialist Trip to KazakhstanDuring his recent visit, Naim Kapucu spent three weeks lending his expertise and building a relationship between UCF and Nazarbayev University.
