Executive Summary
National Hurricane Museum and Science Center
Statement of Purpose
The National Hurricane Museum and Science Center proposes to remember, reflect and teach the lessons learned from hurricanes and related events, then to prepare for the future, so as to empower man to survive these storms unscathed, and to build a more responsible, responsive national community of Americans.
We believe there is both the need and the desire to establish and build this national center, so that every American —individuals, families, school children, as well as, serious students, teachers and researchers of meteorology, engineering, sociology and environmental science—will have a place to:
- learn about hurricanes and extreme weather events;
- experience the power of these natural forces;
- memorialize and pay respect to lives and land lost and changed by past storms;
- reflect upon the consequences to society by our actions in response to natural disasters;
- understand the importance of man’s impact on the global environment, and our ability to develop and build a new responsibly;
- enjoy, and be thrilled by, their learning experience;
- leave the Center, changed by their interactions with its exhibits, and encourage others to visit.
In addition, we believe that, unlike most museums whose subject matter is history of a sort, the nation will focus fresh attention on the National Hurricane Museum and Science Center every time a hurricane threatens America’s shores. Thusly, we will design the Center to be a source of real-time information and media reporting, so that everyone can follow the progress of every large storm system around the world on any given day. This Center will become a media- and citizen-friendly repository, authority and distribution center for all information on extreme weather phenomena.
Central Messages
- States that border the Gulf of Mexico are the most often and usually the hardest hit by these devastating storms, but the entire American Coast line from Maine to Texas have been and will continue to be areas that must prepare for the onslaught of a hurricane.
- Everyone in America is affected by a hurricane that enters the Gulf due to the vast resources and transportation infrastructure located in this region. (oil and gas; seafood; shipping ports; homeland security – strategic petroleum reserves; border of Mexico; wetland protection – decreasing severity for inland states).
- To live in the normal paths of these storms means to prepare, survive, return, and remember.
- There is a special character and quality to people who choose to live and persist in these coastal areas that have become their chosen and cherished home.
- Education and technology will be key to continued emergency preparedness.
- Constant learning, vigilance, new technologies, and policies and practices have and will continue to have a dramatic impact on the way we deal with hurricanes.
- Hurricanes are powerful and practical motivators for students to learn science, history, and sociology when developed in an interactive, immersive way.
- No matter how much you know, prepare, and anticipate hurricanes, they are an awesome force of nature that constantly surprise.
- Recording and reporting the weather
- Helping to survive the storm
- Remembering the storm
Central Questions
- What does it feel like to live in the path of, prepare for, endure and recover from a hurricane?
- Why should all Americans respect and understand the power of a hurricane? How does it affect individuals that are not directly in their path?
- Where do hurricanes fit in the bigger ecological picture?
- How do hurricanes define our regional identity and memory?
- What makes a hurricane? What is the anatomy of a hurricane?
- What is the science of hurricanes?
- Should we stop a hurricane if we could?
- Why do we give hurricanes human names?
- What is it like to live at risk in a coastal hurricane zone and the actual experience?
- How do we as humans impact the environment and global warming as it relates to tropical occurrences?
- Can the NHMSC spur interest for students to pursue math and science curriculums?
- How do we assist and change nature/environment and at the same time develop systems that allow us to coexist in a cost efficient and safe way with hurricanes?
- How do we create programs that assist with the social aspects of severe weather—moving people from fear to respect and understanding?
- What is the best way to educate and excite our children about math and science?
- Debate the Butterfly Effect.
Educational Objectives
- Visitors will be able to list the 4 key causes of hurricanes and describe 3 reasons why they vary in intensity individually and over time;
- Visitors will be able to list 5 key ways to prepare for hurricanes and explain how each step reduces the potential impact of hurricanes on lives and property;
- Visitors will be able to describe how hurricanes are predicted and tracked and how that has changed over the past 30 years;
- Visitors will be able to describe 3 major hurricanes of the past and their consequences for hurricane country ;
- Visitors will empathize with the victims of hurricanes and be able to describe the long-term effect they have on regional inhabitants lives;
- Visitors will be able to explain 3 ways hurricanes directly affect their lives even if they do not live in hurricane country;
- Visitors will be able to describe the key phases of a hurricane and how it feels to experience each of these phases;
- Teachers will be able to explain how hurricanes can be used to motivate students to learn basic math and science concepts.
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