NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— Today at a Public Works Committee meeting, local leaders discussed hurricane preparations for the upcoming 2022 Hurricane season.

Putting plans in motion ahead of the upcoming 2022 Hurricane season is what local leaders are doing.

“Obviously we are coming off of two years of major storms so we can’t understate the importance of lessons learned from Hurricane Ida,” Collin Arnold, Director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said.

After Ida ravaged Southeast Louisiana last year, according to forecasters 2022 is forecasted to have 19 named storms, 9 hurricanes, and 4 of them major.

“We are a resilent and prepared community,” Arnold said.

He says this years they are prepping by installing 17 new “WeatherSTEM” sites to better help with weather sensing.

“These stations will work throughout the area, and they are Category 5 stations,” he said.

In addition to that the City has teamed up with NORDC to use their facilities and have more Emergency Resource Centers for residents to stay connected to WI-FI, get food, water, and supplies.

“We can certainly have a better menu to choose from as to where the impacts are in the city and what types of facilities we can open up and what services we can offer,” he said.

In regards to power, the city will also partner with Entergy to expand backup power generator’s capacity and in regards to flooding, the Department of Public Works is already working on those issues.

“We will come to a block, clean all the catch basins and drain lines, and not just that one catch basin that was reported,” Josh Hartley, Acting Director of Public Works said.

Leaders say now is the time to become weather aware!