Here's how Houstonians can prepare for the 2018 hurricane season

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Whether we like it or not, hurricane season is officially here. It starts on June 1.

The Harris County Office of Emergency Management is ready. Inside the Houston Transtar building, departments from all over Harris and Galveston counties work together to keep us safe when a storm hits.

"One thing about 2018, it looks like it could be a year where we have development close in -- so in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. Those storms can make landfall fairly quickly," said Jeff Lindner, meteorologist for Harris County Flood Control.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett says one of the biggest concerns for this year's hurricane season is that people will make decisions based on post-traumatic stress caused by Harvey.

"If people react with Harvey on their mind, then we are going to end up with a Rita-style evacuation all over again," Emmett said.

In 2002 during Hurricane Rita, the evacuation was known to be more catastrophic than the storm itself. Instead of panicking, Emmett says be prepared.

"This is five days worth of shelf stable food," Sarah Laird said as she opened a small brown box inside a food storage warehouse at Interfaith Ministries.

Over the next three days, Interfaith Ministries volunteers will hand out hurricane supply boxes and a case of water to 4,300 seniors in Houston and Galveston. The boxes contain five cans of stew, crackers, juice, a granola bar and powdered milk.

"Something to help keep them going in a really scary time," Laird said.