PEARL, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
We are just days away from the official start of the 2012 Hurricane Season, and two named storms have already formed.
Wednesday, the state's emergency responders put their plans into action in preparation for a mock category three hurricane.
Mission Control at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency coordinates efforts for the arrival of mock Hurricane Natasha, a category three storm with 120 mile per hour winds.
All agencies of government and emergency responders are working in real time.
The exercise, three months in the making, put the fictional storm 18 hours off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, barreling toward Hancock County.
The exercise is reminiscent of August 28, 2005, the hours before Hurricane Katrina's landfall.
State leaders remind residents to follow disaster and evacuation orders.
"We're asking all to be careful, to be aware that your preparedness is in fact your first responsibility and that would include having your emergency supply kits available in your home," said Governor Phil Bryant.
MEMA's Executive Director Robert Latham, the agency leader during Katrina, said the state is ready.
"The ones that scare me most are the ones that develop in the Bay of Campeche or off the Yucatan Peninsula that rapidly develop overnight when you don't have a lot of time to evacuate. Those are the ones that concern me more than anything else," said Latham.
"As of today, we could move about 7,500 soldiers and airmen to the affected area if necessary," said MS Army National Guard Adjutant General Leon Collins.
Volunteers and chapters with agencies, like the American Red Cross, are some of the first on the ground.
They used this time to lay groundwork and make assessments.
"Things like shelters where they need to go, what feeding efforts that we need, doing that in advance of a real world experience this exercise gives us an opportunity to do that," said Warren Miller with the American Red Cross Central Mississippi Chapter.
It is a crash course for some while a refresher course for many others.
Hurricane season officially begins June 1 and runs through November 30.
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