This week on Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall, Chief Meteorologist Frank Billingsley has some very important tips to remember this hurricane season.
“If you’re in an evacuation zone, which one? If you’re told to leave, don’t argue. Don’t be one of those people that the Coast Guard now has to risk their life and go and rescue," Billingsley said. "If you’re told to leave and it’s a mandatory evacuation, leave. Know which way you’re going to go, what’s your evacuation route, what are you going to take with you."
Are you ready for hurricane season? Whether you evacuate or not, some things are an absolute must.
“If you’re not in an evacuation zone what do you need at home to shelter in place for a week? Do you have enough water? Do you have enough canned goods? Do you have something to open canned goods with if the electricity is out? Little simple things and then do you have a good supply of tools and clean up stuff?” Billingsley said.
Official forecasters are calling for an average hurricane season but what does that mean?
Billingsley said, "These forecasts for an average year are probably about right. We don’t see anything out there like particularly hot water. In 2005 the gulf was 90 degrees in spots and not seeing really hot water like that. Average doesn’t mean less than average chances “we” won’t get hit this season!
PLUS...
The history of Freedmen’s Town and battle to keep its historic brick streets, built by the offspring of slaves.
“We only have 7/10 of a mile left and so we’re asking that the city look at a different way or providing the infrastructure to place the sewer and water lines under the sidewalks opposed to digging up the bricks,” said Dorris Ellis Robinson with Freedmen’s Town Preservation Coalition.
As we head toward Juneteenth, we take a look at historic Freedmen’s Town which once occupied almost all of downtown Houston.
“It was a thriving community. We had our lawyers, doctors, schools everything that mattered to the African American community at that time was at Freedmen’s Town,” Robinson said.
And...
We take a look at NASA's efforts to head into deep space and how much more is at stake as astronauts head to mars.
“A trip to the moon in Apollo was three days more or less to get there, three to get back and orbit around the moon and on the surface. We’re talking about sending astronauts to Mars on trips that may take six or even eight months just to get there," Chief scientist John Charles, Ph.D. , with NASA human research. "And they have to be in great condition when they arrive so they can work as hard as they every worked in their lives.”
Current NASA research is impacting quality of life for us on Earth with things like cat scans done remotely.
"A lot of places on the Earth don’t have any kind of diagnostic imaging available to them. Techniques developed by NASA so that astronauts on a remote location like a space station have been the same techniques they’ve been able to apply to remote locations on the earth,” NASDA astronaut Dr. Tom Marshburn said.