Hurricane Barry: First Storm of the Season

Hurricane Barry is officially the first storm of the 2019 Hurricane Season. Hurricane Barry made landfall on July 13th around 10a.m. CDT as a Category 1 hurricane off the coast of Louisiana. This is the first named storm of the season and brought tremendous amounts of rainfall, flooding, and wind damage across multiple regions of the coast.

Barry only had a short stint at hurricane status as it quickly weakened to a still-powerful tropical storm several hours later. The storm prompted mandatory evacuations as it moved inland with 70-mph winds on Saturday, and resulted in tornado threats, blocked-off roadways, and overtopped levees as it triggered a significant flood threat across the lower Mississippi Valley.

Exceptional preparation and coordination between government and private organizations minimalized damage and allowed for quick response and recovery. The efforts of the Reentry Access Program also aided in the preparation and response to this storm, as we tirelessly serviced new and existing organizations and insured everyone received the appropriate documentation for reentry. All organizations requiring access received their documents and were able to access their facilities without any reported problems.

Hurricane Barry is just the beginning of what is forecasted to be a very active hurricane season within the Gulf and Atlantic. Activity in both regions is rapidly increasing and preparation for future storms needs to be a priority in the upcoming weeks and months.

For more information, and to register for your organizations reentry access, please visit https://eritn.com/registration