Times-Journal News Editor

The latest National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s projections have the remnants

of Hurricane Frances reaching the Alabama border by Monday afternoon and cutting

across the state (See graph at right).

In a story for yesterday’s Times-Journal, Selma’s Emergency Management Director,

Brett Howard, said plans have been in place for years to help Selma deal with any

adverse affects from a hurricane coming up from the coast.

“Shelters are already planned out and in place,” Howard said. “The planning started years

ago.

We plan and work this stuff every year.”

Dallas County already has 10-12 potential shelters in churches and schools.

Howard says

that the hotels fill up first.

“The shelters are set and in place, the Red Cross will be here in my office if and when the

time comes,” he said.

Howard said the biggest threat to Selma from the storms is the tornadoes.

“We’re 150 miles from the coast, it just depends on how strong it is.

We could very

easily see 70-to-80 mph winds, it it’s moving really fast,” Howard said. “Our main threat

from a hurricane is tornadoes that spawn off.

Not, the hurricane itself, but the tornadoes

from it and the rain.”

Before it can reach Alabama, the storm must cross Florida.

It will be the second time in

the month that the state has been hit by a hurricane.

According to the AP, about 2.5 million residents were told to clear out ahead of what

could be the most powerful storm to hit Florida in a decade. Other people in the 300-mile

stretch covered by the hurricane warning rushed to fortify their homes with plywood and

storm shutters, and buy water, gas and canned food.

Already a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds and the potential to push ashore waves

up to 15 feet high, Frances could make itself felt in the state by midmorning Friday.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered 375 miles southeast of West Palm Beach and

was moving northwest at close to 10 mph. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 80 miles

from its center.