Q: Should Lincoln County be concerned with Hurricane Irma?

A: Hurricane season is here and people need to be prepared.

According to USA Today, Hurricane Harvey that hit the coast of Texas almost two weeks ago will be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, estimated cost of $190 billion.

The storm dropped nearly 52 inches of rain in the Houston metro area, causing massive flooding and destruction.

Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Mississippi coast in 2005, is a storm that Mississippians and Gulf Coast residents will never forget.

With Hurricane Irma nearing the coast of Florida, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Clifford Galey said they are keeping an eye on the storm.

“All of the models we’re looking at right now are saying that it’s going to hit the Florida coast and continue up the Atlantic coastline, but as you know it’s weather and we don’t know for sure what it’s going to do until it happens,” said Galey.

He said they are watching the models and different forecasts several times a day and that right now they don’t see any reason to be concerned. But it doesn’t hurt to keep your eye on the weather just in case something changes, he said.

Galey is also watching Hurricane Jose, which is following Irma.

“We’re going to keep watching the models throughout the weekend until it’s not a threat to us or anyone else. If it does become a threat we’ll have meetings here with our elected officials and law enforcement. We’ll let the public know what’s going on, but hopefully we don’t have to do that,” Galey said.

As far as the weather forecast for the weekend is concerned, it looks to be a great weekend for the Lincoln County area.

“Highs are going to be in the low 80s and low temperatures around 60 degrees,” said Anna Wolverton, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson. “There is a low chance of rain and we should have mostly clear skies.”