History of Hurricane Names:
For several hundred years, many hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occured. Clement Wragge, an Australian meteorologist, began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the 19th century.

In 1953, the United States replaced their two-year old plan of naming storms with a phonetic alphabet, with a new international phonetic alphabet. That year, this Nation's weather services began using female names for storms. The practice of naming hurricanes soley after women came to an end in 1978 when men's and women's names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Why Hurricanes are Named:
The use of easily remembered names greatly reduced confusion when two or more tropical storms occured at the same time. Many times there had been confusion or false rumors when a storm advisory broadcast from one radio station was mistaken for warning concerning an entirely different storm located hundreds of miles away.

Present Procedure in the North Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico:
The Tropical Prediction Center near Miami, Florida, keeps a constant watch on oceanic storm-breeding areas for tropical disturbances that may herald the formation of a hurricane. If a disturbance intensifies into a tropical storm, the Center will give the storm a name from one of the lists of names. The Center uses a new set of names each year beginning with the first name in the set. After the sets have all been used, they are reused. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not included because of the scarcity of names beginning with those letters. The Center will retire a name after a major land-falling storm with major economic impact.

The name lists have an international flavor because hurricanes affect other nations and are tracked by the public and weather service of many countries. Names for these lists are selected from library sources and agreed upon at international meetings of the World Meteorologist Organization.

REMEMBER - the coordinates of a hurricane given by the weather service is the location of the eye. The average storm is 250 miles in diameter: thus the danger zone extends some 100 miles on either side of the coordinates.

If a storm is projected to hit our area, maximum conditions would exist if the storm eye crossed over us, or to the immediate south. Lessor conditions would be expected if it crossed to the north of our area.

LEAVE EARLY from low-lying beach areas that may be swept by high tides or storm waves. Leave mobile homes for more substantial shelter - they are particularly vulnerable to overturning in strong winds.

BE AWARE that some areas may flood long before the arrival of the storm. Your escape may be further complicated by the fact that high density of population of some areas may require evacuation orders to be issued earlier than one day before the storm's arrival. Don't get caught by the hurricane in your car on an open coastal road.

If local government advises evacuation of your area, DO SO IMMEDIATELY. Keep your car radio on to listen for further instructions, such as the location of emergency shelters.

FACTS -
What to expect following a direct hit of a hurricane: