Riders On The Storm: Are You Prepared?

The director of the National Weather Service announced that this year's hurricane season will be a rough one. Forecasters say that the combination of warmer waters along with "low wind shear and low pressure, as well as the jet stream, favor storm formation."

Officials at the National Weather Service urged those living in hurricane-prone areas to be prepared.

So you are probably thinking: big deal, we don't live along the coast, what do we have to worry about?

Well, according to Austin forecasters, if a major hurricane were to hit the Gulf Coast we may have to deal with the aftermath of the storm: heavy rains, strong winds and tornadoes.

Another reason we should be concerned: this year it seems that the storms have been favoring our region of the Gulf. Is Texas the new Florida? We hope not.

Have you ever been through a hurricane or tornado? The closest Austinist got to one was watching the movie Twister in a theatre with awesome surround sound. But we know it's not even close to the real thing, and we never want to find out what the real thing is like either.