CONTACT:  Frank Lepore (NHC)                  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Dennis Decker (WSO, Melbourne)      5/14/97
          James Talbot (Dep. Coordinator, City of Norfolk

The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today that a team of its hurricane specialists will join local media, emergency managers and National Weather Service staff to increase hurricane awareness for the coming season.

Jerry Jarrell, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, and hurricane specialist Max Mayfield are part of a team of local National Weather Service meteorologists, emergency managers, and environmental scientists who will brief local media in coastal storm-prone areas.

"The team and the news media share supporting roles for communicating with the public before, during and after the storm," Jarrell said. "The public must understand the threat, prepare for it, and then act. The tour helps the team understand the need for information, and highlights the public's collective responsibility to act."

The tour this year travels to Melbourne, Fla. (May 14), Norfolk, Va. (May 15) and Cape Cod, Mass. (June 5), with parallel trips to Corpus Christie, Texas (May 28) and Tampa, Fla. (May 29). The annual tour visits coastal Gulf and Atlantic cities at the beginning of the hurricane season on June 1.

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