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Web Portal to Track Hurricanes
By Rusty Cawley

When hurricane season for the Gulf Coast region starts on June 1, the Integrative Center for Homeland Security (“ICHS”) at Texas A&M University will activate “Storm Door,” its hurricane status web portal.

The portal provides an online, one-stop site for accessing the best available news and information on hurricanes in progress. It arms its users with the tools they need to respond intelligently to real-time events.

“In the aftermath of 9/11, the presumption was that ‘homeland security’ largely meant ‘counter-terrorism,’” said Dr. David H. McIntyre, ICHS director. “But Hurricane Katrina taught us that ‘homeland security’ must expand its vision to an ‘all-hazards’ concept. Natural disasters can cripple the nation, too. We want to do our part for national preparedness.”

First launched in 2007, the site, www.homelandsecurity.tamu.edu/hurricane, offers:
• Links to sites that provide information you need to prepare for a hurricane, from storing food and supplies to taking care of your pets
• Evacuation routes for all major states along the Gulf Coast
• Links to emergency management offices by state and by major city
•Sources of official weather news, including NOAA weather radio and the National Hurricane Center
• Links to major local newspapers and TV stations along the Gulf Coast, as well as local links for Bryan-College Station area residents
• Hurricane safety information for children
• Links to major universities along the Gulf Coast
• Tracking charts, including an archive that stretches to 1958
• National and international links to major media such as CNN, Reuters and BBC

The site is maintained by the ICHS Public Affairs Office, with the assistance of Texas A&M student workers.

“We are constantly evaluating the content of our site to make certain we have the best available information,” said ICHS Public Affairs officer Rusty Cawley, who supervises the site.

A unit of Texas A&M’s Division of Research and Graduate Studies, ICHS employs five full-time staff members who are supported by six research assistants. The center’s mission is to explore the entire range of homeland security activities, identify needs in education, research, and outreach, and match those against the resources of the Texas A&M System.

For example, ICHS is leading the work to establish a master’s degree program that will take a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of homeland security. Fellows at ICHS serve as adjunct faculty teaching a graduate certificate in homeland security through the Bush School of Government & Public Service. ICHS also maintains an online database of more than 4,000 documents key to the study of homeland security, with one page summaries of each to speed research.

The Taxonomy for Education & eXploration (TEX) is expanded and revised daily by a team of research assistants led by Deputy Director Laura Spencer and by the faculty of Texas A&M. The database is organized along a unique framework that divides reports, studies, articles, analyses, legislation, web sites, and other sources into 20 categories. All of this and more is available to the public at the ICHS web site homelandsecurity.tamu.edu.