Hurricane Season (Internal Revenue Service publications)

The 2006 hurricane season starts June 1 and ends November 30. The Internal Revenue Service has prepared publications with useful information in the event a hurricane or other natural disaster affects your business.

Publication 2194B has a checklist of important documents needed when requesting IRS assistance after a natural disaster. Publications 547 outlines special IRS rules that apply when reporting a loss in a “Presidentially” declared disaster area, and Publication 584B contains worksheets to calculate business losses resulting from a disaster.

The publications are available as free downloads from the IRS website, www.irs.gov.

Publication 2194B – Disaster Losses Kit For Businesses

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p2194b.pdf

Publication 547 – Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p547.pdf

Publication 584B – Business Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Loss Workbook

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p584b.pdf

Form 4684 – Casualty and Theft

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4684.pdf

All forms and publications are in the PDF format and should be compatible with the latest version of the Adobe Reader.

NOAA Hurricanes

NOAA Hurricanes

Hurricane Preparedness Week 2006 took place last month (May 21-27) – like sands of the hourglass, so are the days leading to the next tropical storm. Recent history has confirmed what we already knew about hurricanes: that hurricane hazards do come in many forms – storm, high winds, tornadoes, and flooding. Do you have an adequate plan that includes all of these hazards?

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) teamed up with the U.S. Department of Commerce to bring you timely, accurate storm information, forecasting, as well as images, a history of previous hurricanes, dangers during a hurricane, and how a prepare. Let’s try a couple of searches:

Search #1

• Logon to the ‘Hurricanes’ website at http://hurricanes.noaa.gov.
• Click Search on the top menu bar.
• Type your search term – “hurricane preparedness”; click Search.
• You’ll retrieve many results; to shorten this list, click Hurricane Preparedness Week on the left-hand menu.
• Click the result – Hurricane Preparedness Week on the right-hand list.
• Voila! – feast your eyes on how you can secure your home, create a family disaster plan, pet plan, and compile a disaster supply kit.

Search #2 – En Español

• On the ‘NOAA’ search page (URL: http://www.noaa.gov/search.html), click Advanced Search.
• To find information in Spanish on the Saffir-Simpson Hurrican Scale, type the phrase “saffir-simpson” under ‘This exact phrase’; choose Spanish from the language drop-down menu; click Search.
• Click the result – La Escala Saffir/Simpson para Huracanes to read the description of a categoria cinco.

Note, to a specific phrase, use quotation marks around the phrase. For example: “atlantic hurricane tracking chart”. Notice also that NOAA search ignores capital letters. Saffir-Simpson produces the same result as saffir-simpson or SafFir-SimpSOn.

FEMA Emergency Preparedness Training Course

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/downloads/IS22/Unit1.pdf

FEMA, for all its failings, does provide good information to the public about emergency preparedness. If you’re anxious about this year’s hurricane season and feel you were woefully unprepared for last year’s, here’s an online class you can take to get you, and your family, up to speed.

Taking this test will get you prepared for any emergency and teach you how to:

• Get informed about hazards and emergencies that may affect you and your family
• Develop an emergency plan
• Collect and assemble disaster supplies kit
• Learn where to seek shelter from all types of hazards
• Identify the community warning systems and evacuation routes
• Include in your plan required information from community and school plans
• Learn what to do for specific hazards
• Practice and maintain your plan

Take the course in your spare time and at your own speed. It may save your life!

Hurricane and Tropical Storm Information Pathfinder

 

http://www.ebr.lib.la.us/reference/pathfinder/hurricanes.htm 

It’s hurricane season again!! Don’t get caught unprepared this year — bookmark this pathfinder in your browser, or print it out, and have the best local hurricane information pathfinder at your fingertips.

This pathfinder lists a number of books available at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library that define the nature and danger of hurricanes and tropical storms. It also identifies web sites containing current advisories, forecasts, storm tracks, checklists of storm preparedness procedures, and places to contact in the event a hurricane or severe weather affects this area.

The Hurricane & Tropical Storm Information Pathfinder is a must-have resource for hurricane season, so make sure you have it on hand!!

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