BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – With hurricane season approaching, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is bringing the community together to prepare before a storm forms.

“We can’t stop disasters from happening. We can’t stop hurricanes from happening. But what we can do is equip our communities with the resources that they need to prepare for these storms ahead of time,” said Jayda Morris, CPRA outreach manager.

The agency hosted an event featuring interactive storm simulations and a full model of the Mississippi River.

“If you do it now, like on a sunny day like today, you’re ready to go for the rest of the season,” Jay Grymes said.

El Niño may reduce storms, but Louisiana still at risk

State Climatologist Jay Grymes said an El Niño pattern may reduce the number of storms in the Atlantic but warned against a false sense of security.

“In those 25 years, Louisiana, some part of the state has been impacted by 29 storms. That’s one a year, regardless of El Niño. So that should tell you something,” Grymes said.

He said the bigger concern is storms that can form in the Gulf with little warning.

“If we’re going to get a storm, it very possibly could be one that bubbles up in the Gulf and doesn’t give us five or seven days to track it coming our way. It gives us 40 hours to get ready for a landfall. So it’s imperative that you go ahead and do it now,” Grymes said.

Preparation goes beyond stocking water

Preparing now includes walking through yards, checking trees, and knowing whether everyone in the family can survive two weeks without power.

PhD students with the LSU College of the Coast and Environment gave the community a virtual reality experience that puts users inside a storm.

“If they wear the goggles or play with the Apple Vision Pro, they can understand how high will the flood be, and they can know how dangerous is the hurricane scenario,” said Yixuan Wang.

The VR simulation uses real historical data to show users what compound flooding looks like in New Orleans and surrounding areas. The goal is to make the science real for people who can’t picture what a flood map means.

“It’s just to let you understand the environment. We will add the audios, the different sound of the wind and the storm. And you can see how tense of the rainfall around you,” Wang said.

Organizers said the event is about making sure that when a storm threatens the area, families already know their plan.

Information from the event is available on CPRA’s website. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.

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