The official start of hurricane season June 1 will bring hopes of better technology and emergency responses because of the LSU Hurricane Center’s announced collaboration with the New Orleans/Baton Rouge National Weather Service and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.The partnership will allow the Hurricane Center to develop research tools for hurricane forecasts through this partnership with NWS and GOHSEP, as well as the Institute of Marine Science at the University of North Carolina and the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. “During [Hurricane] Gustav, it became more evident that we needed more formal coordination among the universities and the NWS,” said Robert Twilley, associate vice chancellor of the Coastal Sustainability Agenda. “We had a ‘grand challenge’ meeting here at LSU and … one of the outcomes was to coordinate how we would exchange information so that we would provide a better product to the public.” Gustav also revealed a need for improvement in the LSU Firefighter Emergency Training Institute’s hurricane response, which implemented a new hurricane preparedness course this summer.”There was never really an organized formal training method for hurricanes before,” said Jeff Pardue, course coordinator for FETI’s hurricane preparedness course. “After Gustav, the state fire marshal, Butch Browning, recognized that, and he commissioned us to develop this class.”  The course educates firefighters about hurricane warnings and notifications, accommodations and food in the case of a hurricane, operational support and mutual aid agreements with other organizations, Pardue said.Ken Graham, the meteorologist-in-charge at the NWS Weather Forecast Office in Slidell, La., hopes Louisiana will achieve a storm surge system similar to Northern Oklahoma’s tornado research.”In Oklahoma, they can … take research and quickly infuse it into operations,” Graham said. “It is quickly turned into warnings … that go out to the public and decision-makers to save lives. I think we can do the same thing here with surge — protect property and save lives.”Twilley said the partnership allows the University to be a test laboratory and role model for other systems in addition to better guiding the public’s response by utilizing and developing these research tools.”Even though we have a system in place for this hurricane season, we already know what needs to be improved for next year,” Twilley said. “When you have that kind of dialogue with the clients and the users, it really helps you focus your research agenda. That’s a very important benefit from this partnership.”FETI will also benefit from the partnership by being able to respond more quickly during a hurricane, Pardue said.”The more accurate [the NWS] can be, the more prepared we can be,” Pardue said.The FETI course is first targeting fire departments in the area below I-10 and I-12, and FETI has successfully delivered the course 18 times to 194 firefighters, Pardue said.”There have been … nothing but positive statements [about the course],” Pardue said. “It revealed that [fire departments] are not … prepared. Now they know what to do and the steps they need to take.”But while Pardue said FETI is content with the improvement in their hurricane response, Twilley and Graham said there is room for improvement within the storm surge forecasts, as well as other areas. “We need to improve on distinguishing the single message or map and how … to deliver it,” Twilley said. “Also, Louisiana’s levees … and structures’ elevations are inaccurate. Next year, we want to improve … elevation so that we have better grids.”  Graham added precision to the list of improvements, which would hopefully lead to more accurate pinpointing of effected areas and less people evacuating. “I think the partnership is a lot of hope,” Graham said. And Twilley agreed. “I think every year is better,” Twilley said. “I think we’ll see some improvement this year… and want storm surge to follow that improvement.” —-Contact Natalie Roy at [email protected]