BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana is preparing for what experts say could be an active season. An addition to the state Emergency Preparedness team, according to Governor Jeff Landry, will help keep residents safe. Wednesday, Landry announced Jay Grymes as the state climatologist.
"We want to make sure that our parishes, our industries, and our citizens are getting the proper information directly from the governor's office Homeland Security as it relates to weather events," Landry says.
Grymes, who has been in the meteorology and weather field for 30 years, will be employed under the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and partner with LSU.
They say Grymes' position will allow for more streamlined communication about major weather events and planning for things such as evacuations. Grymes says on his agenda is being aware of the rapidly intensifying storms we've seen over the past few years.
"I just simply requires that we be more alert to the potential for these tropical bombs, if you will, to explode into high-intensity storms in a relatively short window of time, but GOHSEP is on top of that," Grymes said.
While Hurricane Berryl isn't expected to impact Louisiana, Grymes, and GOHSEP are using the storm as a practice run should a hurricane reach the state. They're urging residents to do the same.
"This is a storm though to use as finalizing your preps for the rest of hurricane season. It’s kind of like Christmas shopping no one wants to wait until the last five days of December to get out there. Get your preps done now," Grymes said.
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