Georgia Emergency Management Director Charley English typed away Tuesday afternoon as he responded to questions about hurricane preparedness via Twitter.

GEMA used the hashtag #AskGEMA to solicit questions from Georgians about evacuation plans and potential dangers for about an hour.

English said the Twitter event was a way to raise awareness for people all over the state.

“Coastal residents are bombarded with information all year round and I believe that inland residents often feel like that hurricanes won’t affect them and that’s just not true,” explained English. “In Georgia, as a matter of fact, the likelihood of the impacts of a hurricane affecting you inland are greater than that if you are on the coast because of the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the hurricanes that come in from Florida and come up through inland Georgia that spawn the tornadoes and the inland flooding.”

This year’s NOAA forecast calls for what will likely be an “above average” Atlantic hurricane season with 13 to 20 names storms and between 3 and 6 major hurricanes.

“Regardless of the predictions, we’re [going to] prepare the same way every year. We work hard during the off season to get ready for hurricane season because it is so catastrophic when one hits and I believe that by people talking about it being a very busy year, is good for awareness,” English said.

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