Carlos Pacheco Elementary, New Bedford- October 2nd

41° 39' 24" N
70° 56' 25" W
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The EarthView team is excited to be visiting Carlos Pacheco Elementary School in New Bedford for the first time today! This is our first EarthView trip to a New Bedford School. While we had not visited before, some New Bedford students were lucky enough to view EarthView back at our home base at Bridgewater State University by participating in the BRIDGE program. 

New Bedford is a very historic city and we are glad to be visiting! EarthViews very own Dr. Hayes-Bohanan frequents the New Bedford area as he is a member of the Whaling City Rowing club which rows throughout New Bedford Harbor. He has written about this on his environmental geography blog which can be found here.

During our visit today, a strong hurricane is making its way through the Atlantic Ocean. Category 4 Hurricane Joaquin has left its mark on the Bahamas and other surrounding islands as it continues slowly moving to the north, northeast at around 3 miles per hour. While hurricane Joaquin is currently on track to pass by the coast of Massachusetts well offshore, it is not out of the question that the track could change towards us within the next couple of days.

National Hurricane Center Prediction as of 11am 10/2/15

One interesting thing to note is that in New Bedford, there is a hurricane barrier that runs through New Bedford and Fairhaven Harbor. It protects the cities of New Bedford, Fairhaven and Achushnet from storm surges and tidal flooding that comes with powerful storms such as hurricanes. It also serves as a corral for large ships from all over the North Atlantic. If Hurricane Joaquin makes a close enough path to our coastline, the hurricane barrier may be closed early next week to protect the area. We will just have to wait and see!

EarthView wrangler Eva, is really into emergency management preparedness and she would like to make sure that everyone is prepared for the potential risk of this hurricane. There are great checklists of items that everyone should have in their home to mitigate the effects of the aftermath of severe storms. Please visit the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center page for great tips on how to prepare. And also take a look at ready.gov which also has important information in regards to your safety.

We hope that the students of Carlos Pacheco Elementary School enjoyed their visit with EarthView today! We will be back visiting the school on October 23rd!