Hurricane Guide 1: Preparing for Hurricane Season

There are lots of resources available to help you prepare for natural disasters like hurricanes. This list is intended to provide you with a list of things to do/think about before hurricane season starts and includes some things learned through personal experience that you normally don’t see on the typical preparedness guides. It is important to note that the items on this particular list are things you should address at the beginning of each hurricane season, well before any storms threaten. Don’t wait until a storm is breathing down your neck to take these actions. If you do these things before the threat appears, it will greatly reduce your stress levels and the time it takes to prepare yourself when a storm does rear it’s ugly head.

My concentration for this section of the guide is on items that can be taken care of before the season starts and on items that you may have not have around the house at all times. The goal is to avoid have to make that last minute run to the grocery store for bottled water, or the frustration of spending 8 hours putting up shutters because half of the hardware is missing.

One of the best places to start getting ready for hurricane season is to create your personalized Family Disaster Plan using the new tool available from the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Website. There’s also a business version available!

Insurance

Review your policies to make sure they adequately cover your needs. This is particularly important if you’ve made any improvements to your home. Keep in mind that your homeowners policy does not cover flood and probably does not cover wind damage in this area.

The Hurricane Insurance Information Center has some good guidelines for reviewing your insurance needs.

Home Inventory

Conduct a home inventory so you can accurately report any losses. Digital cameras and video recorders are great tools for making these inventories. Take pictures of everything and try to get model numbers in the shots whenever possible.

Important Documents and Belongings

Make sure that you have adequate waterproof containers available to protect all of your important documents and belongings you will want to take with you in the event of evacuation.

Don’t forget the computer! Many of us have a lot of important data on our computers. If you plan to take your computer with you when you evacuate, remember that all you really need to take if you have a desktop is the tower. Monitors, keyboards, printers, and mice can be easily replaced. Your data cannot! An even better solution is to utilize an external hard drive to make backups of all your data. With this approach all you have to take along is the external drive which takes up much less space than the tower (and don’t forget the power supply!).

Pets

Most shelters and many hotels do not allow pets. Therefore, it is very important to have a plan for where your pets will stay if you have to evacuate your home. Make sure you have the following information available to include in your important papers if you evacuate:

  • Proof of vaccinations including, Kennel Cough, Parvo and Distemper. (*Note: I don’t have cats so I don’t know what the requirements are. If you have cats and can pass along that info to me I’d appreciate it). Kennels will not accept your pet without proof from your vet that your pets are up-to-date on their shots.
  • The name and and contact information of your vet.
  • A photo of your pet.
  • Information on your pet’s ID “chip” if he/she has one.

Additionally, you should make sure you have the following items:

  • Leash and color with appropriate ID.
  • An approved pet carrier of the appropriate size.
  • A properly sized muzzle for dogs.

One final note. There are a few shelters that accept pets but all of these to my knowledge require registration. Register as soon as possible if this is an option for you.

Water Storage

One of the common pieces of advice given for disaster preparedness is to run your bathtubs full of water to provide a supply for toilets and personal hygiene. Unfortunately, my personal experience has shown that there isn’t a tub made that will actually hold water in it for more than a day or two. Even if yours does, you might not get the stopper positioned right even if you think you have and you could return to an empty tub. My solution: Use some 31 gallon Rubbermaid or equivalent plastic storage containers placed in the bathtub. You can basically fill these things right up to the rim with no problem (though they do bulge significantly). Get one for each tub in the house.

You should also save up some 2 liter soft drink bottles. These can be used for potable water. By freezing them when a storm is approaching, they can be put into the refrigerator to help extend the life of any items it contains if the power goes out, or used to keep the contents of a cooler cold. Best of all, as they melt, you have drinking or cooking water. Be sure to leave some air space when filling so they don’t burst when they freeze.

Your pool can also serve as a source of water for non-cooking and non-drinking purposes only!

Another good option is to purchase a camping type water filtration/purifier device. These filtration units are lightweight, and take up much less space than jugs of water. Make sure you know how to operate it and that you have any necessary consumables.

Generators

  • Make sure you understand the operation of your generator. An improperly operated or maintained generator can be deadly!
  • Verify that the generator is functioning properly and that any routine maintenance such as air filter replacement and oil changes are up-to-date.
  • Verify that the generator tank is full and use a gas stabilizer.
  • NEVER run your generator indoors! As with all gas powered items, carbon monoxide is a by-product of the combustion process. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is deadly. Just because you can’t smell it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. You wouldn’t run your car in the house would you?
  • NEVER “backfeed” your generator’s power into your home! Use an approved transfer switch.
  • Make sure you keep the exhaust well away from your structures. The exhaust is very hot and can start fires!

Gasoline

  • Fill your gas cans at the beginning of hurricane season to avoid getting caught in the last minute rush and potential shortages.
  • Use a gas stabilzer.
  • Store your gasoline in a well ventilated area.
  • If you plan to be using tools like chainsaws and other power tools, make sure you have enough 2-stroke oil available to handle the aftermath of a storm. Don’t mix the gas until you need it and mix it in small quantities. You might end up needing the gas for your car or generator and if you’ve already mixed up five gallons for your two stroke engines, that’s gas you can’t use.

Hurricane Shutters/Boarding Windows and Doors

If you have hurricane shutters installed or are planing to use plywood to board up your windows and doors, make sure you know how to operate/put them up. In fact, go through the process by actually installing all your shutters/boards yourself. You need to go through this dry run yourself for three main reasons:

  1. It will ensure that you know how each shutter/board is installed and which panels go where. Do not take for granted that your installer marked the panels in a way which you will understand. Installing each panel yourself in a dry run allows you to figure out which panels go where and gives you the opportunity to mark them in a way that makes sense to you.
  2. It will ensure that the shutters have been properly installed. I speak from experience here. Do not assume that the installer actually put all the panels up during the install and that the anchors are all properly installed. You don’t want to find out that some of the panels don’t fit and that the anchors are pulling out of the wall when a hurricane is bearing down on you. The only way you’ll know for sure that the job was done right is to actually put the shutter up yourself.
  3. It will give you a good idea of how long it takes to acutally do the job. If you’ve never put your hurricane shutters up or boarded up your house yourself, I think you’ll find that it takes a lot longer than you intially estimate. You need to know how long it takes to secure your home before a storm threatens so you can plan out your preparations.

One additional thing to consider if you have panel type shutters that attach with wing nuts is to buy a wing nut driver. This is a bit you can put in your cordless drill which will greatly reduce the amount of time an effort spent putting up and taking down your shutters. They can be found in just about any hardware store.

Know Your Home

Familiarize yourself with where your circuit breaker box, main water shutoff, and any gas line shutoffs are. You’d be surprised how many people do not know where the main water shutoff for their home is located.

Know Where You Are Going To Go

In the event you decide to evacuate, you need to have a plan for where you are going to go, and how you are going to get there. Familiarize yourself with evacuation routes for your area. Know where the shelters are and how to get to them. The following web sites list the currently available shelters for the respective counties:

 

Put Together Your Disaster Kit/Supplies

The time to put your disaster kit and supplies together is before the season starts. That last minute run to the grocery store can cause you to lose valuable time that would be better spent preparing your home, not to mention the added stress.  In reviewing the recommendations below you might see things missing that are usually included in most other guides. This is on purpose. The intent of these pre-hurricane season preparations is to gather those items that are either of limited shelf life, or that you normally don’t have around the house. What you’re after is avoiding the last minute rush to the grocery store and the stress and time associated with that trip.

Store your items in easy to manage, preferably waterproof containers. The smaller 18 gallon Rubbermaid containers or equivalent are a good choice. They are easy to handle, they can stack on top of each other and with the lids on they are rain proof.

Your disaster kit should be examined and replenished each hurricane season. After the season is over, you may want to go ahead and use the items in your disaster kit to ensure that you have fresh items when you replenish for the next season.

Your kit should contain the following items:

Drinking Water: Minimum of one gallon per person per day. Most guidelines indicate having a three day supply but keep in mind that three days may not be adequate on the barrier islands or other remote areas. Personally, I think a 5 day supply is more prudent, particularly for those of us here on Pine Island.

From a storage and portablility point of view, 1 gallon jugs are better than small bottles. Five gallon containers can be difficult to handle and their size can make them harder to store.

As anyone who has taken a survival course will tell you, clean drinking water is the number one priority for survival. You can survive for a surprisingly long time without food, but only about 3 days without water. An often overlooked factor in a hurricane related disaster is that hurricanes occur in the summer. That means it’s hot. That means you sweat. And you probably don’t have electricity so you can’t escape into the AC to cool down. Hydration is crucial to keeping your body functioning and regulating its temperature. Failure to stay hydrated is not an inconvienience, it’s potentially deadly!

Food: All food items for your disaster kit should be non-perishable! As with water, most recommendations seem to be a 3-5 day supply of food. And as before, I think a 5 day supply is more prudent. Pack your food in your waterproof containers as described above to make loading and transport of the items easier. Some suggestions on what to get:

  • Ready to eat canned meats, fruits and vegetables
  • Pastas and canned sauces. If you have a gas grill and adequate water you can cook pasta. Best of all it takes up little space.
  • Canned soups
  • Peanut butter and crackers
  • Salt and sugar
  • Individually packaged condiments (like you find at a fast food restaurant)
  • Comfort foods like cookies, chips and other snacks.

Finally, you’re going to need some way to prepare and eat your food so don’t forget to include:

  • A can opener/bottle opener 
  • A frying pan and a pot for boiling water/cooking
  • A nice sharp knife
  • Some utensils for doing the cooking, like a spatula and tongs
  • Disposable plates, cups, and utensils for eating. Use disposable so you don’t have to use your limited water supply for cleanups.

Personal Hygiene Supplies: Most personal hygiene supplies like toothpaste, razors, etc., do not need to be put together at the pre-hurricane season stage. They will be taken care of when a storm is threatening since they are everyday items you have in your home and can be packed just as you would if you were taking a trip.

Here’s a few items you do need to stock in your disaster kit:

  • A couple of boxes of baby/moisture wipes. In addition to saving water, it’s amazing what these things can do to make you feel better when you’re hot and sweaty in the post-hurricane stages.
  • A bar of soap
  • A few rolls of toilet paper
  • A few rolls of paper towels

Tools: You should have a small set of tools to help make repairs to items damaged during a storm and to help keep things operating in the aftermath. Among these tools should be:

  • A tire plugging kit. This is an item I almost never see on any of the guides. As many of us learned in the post Charley world, roofing nails end up everywhere! A tire plugging kit is a must have for your tool kit.
  • An air pump. Either a bicycle pump or preferably a DC powered (that you plug into your car’s cigarette lighter) air pump to reinflate those flat tires.
  • Pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers, wire cutters, etc.
  • A hacksaw
  • Flashlight with fresh batteries
  • An axe.

First Aid Kit: A basic first aid kit should be a part of every disaster kit. You should check and replenish all first aid kits regularly to make sure that none of the included medications have expired and that any items previously used are replaced.

Other Items: A few additional items will round out your disaster kit:

  • Flashlights and fresh batteries
  • Batteries. You need fresh batteries for all of your flashlights, radios and other devices. Make sure you have an adequate supply for all devices in the proper sizes to fit your needs. Take an inventory of each battery powered device so you’ll know what sizes and how many of each to get. 
  • Toys, books, and games for the kids
  • Extra keys for your house, storage, and cars.
  • A plain old ordinary telephone. If the phone requires and AC adapter, don’t include it in your kit. Telephone service is usually one of the last things to go, and one of the first things to come back after a disaster. If your phone requires AC power to operate, it’s going to be useless if the power is out.
  • A NOAA weather radio

Now We’re Ready

Once you’ve been through the process of taking the steps listed above ,you’ll be in a much better position when a storm does threaten. Being prepared in this way helps you in a number of ways:

  • Reduced stress levels. You have all the things you need so you don’t have to make that last minute run to the grocery store only to find they’ve run out of bottled water. You know where you are going and how to get there if you decide to evacuate.
  • Saved time. You know how to put up your shutters, so you don’t have to “learn” the process. You know where the hardware is and that it’s all there so you don’t have to make a run to the hardware store. You have your disaster kit together so there’s no time lost gathering up everything you need.
  • A sense of control. The simple fact is no one can control a hurricane. But you can take control of your situation and preparedness. Doing so goes a long way towards eliminating the “helpless” feelings you may have as a storm approaches.

Next up: Hurricane Guide 2: When a Storm Threatens

Disclaimer:

Anole Computer Services, LLC and Larry Boyd are providing this data “as is,” and Anole Computer Services, LLC and Larry Boyd disclaim any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will Anole Computer Services, LLC or Larry Boyd be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of this data. The user assumes the entire risk related to the use of this data. Neither Anole Computer Services, LLC nor Larry Boyd are affiliated with any official weather prediction or disaster/security related agencies. Agencies like NOAA and the Department of Homeland Security exist to provide official information in these matters.