The Most Useful Hurricane Prep Tips – Lessons Learned from Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Prep Starts BEFORE the Threat of a New Hurricane
Yes, you read that right! Planning and prepping for the next hurricane starts now.
Here are some things to keep in mind as you start your hurricane preparations before the next hurricane threat arrives. These are tips from the experts at FEMA and NOAA and other government agencies tasked with keeping you safe!
- Know your hurricane evacuation zone
- Decide when to evacuate your family (Cat. 1, Cat. 2, Cat. 3 or when a mandatory evacuation is called for )
- Write a written plan for when your stay, including a supply list
- Write a written plan for when you evacuate, including a supply list
- Plan to include your pets
- Have more than one evacuation destination plans – you need to evacuate away from the pending storm.
- Talk to your neighbors about past storm experiences.
- Buy hurricane supplies now, before they become a valued commodity – think generator, drinking water, ply-board, canned goods, extra gasoline cans, extra propane tank for your gas grill and more.
- Take an inventory video of each room in your home.
- Scan all your insurance documents and important papers to store in the cloud.
If you’d like a more VISUAL HURRICANE PREP LIST, check out one of our earlier posts with a super cool hurricane prep infographic.
Now that you know how to start preparing for the next hurricane, let us check on some hurricane myths floating around the internet…!
What NOT to Do: Debunking Hurricane Prep Myths
From the Tampa Bay Times come these myths that have been floating around on Facebook and other social media sites this past week as Floridians prepared for Hurricane Irma to make landfall. People just keep sharing these over and over and over!
Have you heard these myths? Have you SHARED these myths on social media? Please stop!
- Crack your windows during a hurricane
- Taping up windows prevents them from shattering
- Hotels are required to house pets and service animals
- The dishwasher is a safe place to keep valuables you don’t want to get wet
- You only need to board up windows and doors that are facing the water
Do not take your advice from Facebook. Do not take your hurricane advice from ‘friends, families and neighbors’ reposting ‘copy & paste’ tips from who-knows-where. Instead follow the guidelines from FEMA and your local government agencies experienced in hurricane preparedness.
Hurricane Prep Tips To Seek Your Teeth In!
You can connect with FEMA on ready.gov to get started.
Another great agency for up-to-date hurricane information is NOAA.
We understand that sometimes reading these official government sites can be intimidating, so take care to always check your sources if you do read non government information on non government sites.
Hurricane Preparation and Family Emergency Planning Go Hand in Hand
If you have never made a family emergency plan, start today.
That includes making a plan for a tornado, hurricane, flood, fire or other natural disaster.
We hope you never, ever have to implement such a plan, but in case of emergency, you will be so happy to have a plan to refer back to to help you move forward.
As always, if we can be of assistance, do not hesitate to reach out to us!
Should You Stay or Should You Go?
A Visual Hurricane Prep Guide
With Hurricane Irma barreling down on the Caribbean and headed for Florida, people in the Carolinas are faced with this question:
Should I stay or should I go?
Instead of asking that question, take action and prepare now, regardless whether you stay or go evacuate!
Prepping for a hurricane should not be taken lightly. There are many things to consider.
Helpful Hurricane Facebook Post From Those with Hurricane Experience
In the last few days, we’ve seen this post do the rounds on Facebook – especially among our Myrtle Beach, Grand Strand and Florida friends.
The advice on how to prepare for a hurricane is solid. Check out these tips.
Here are some Hurricane Prep Tips:
1. Start running your ice makers now and bagging the ice in freezer bags. Fill as much space in between your freezer items as you can.
2. Freeze regular tap water for pets, cleaning or drinking in tupperware-type containers. REMEMBER to leave a small bit of space between the top of the water & the lids so the ice expands but doesn’t crack the container.
3. Start using up your perishables to make more room for ice in the freezer.
4. Fill up all vehicles & check tires & oil.
5. Cash from ATM, at least enough to get you through tolls and gas out of town. Call your bank if you plan on leaving the state so they don’t freeze your card for out-of-area “suspicious” transactions.
6. All important docs screenshot & send to your email. Take originals in sealed bags or plastic bins.
7. Pet & livestock food & supplies. Vet records in case you need to shelter then at a storm-safe facility.
8. Evacuation plans and share with family members so they know where you’re headed.
9. Consider putting heirlooms & photos in plastic bins in a high place, second floor, or safe room if you don’t plan on taking them with you.
10. SECURE ALL FIREARMS & AMMUNITION PROPERLY.
11. Old rags & beach towels on your windowsills. Even with the best windows & shutters, water seeping from the wind pressure happens. A few damp towels is better than soaked drywall or floors!
12. Shutter windows and doors and bring everything outside into your garage or house NOW. Do not wait until the day before. Better to get done early and relax than wait until its too late, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE MANDATORY PERSONNEL (hospital employee or first responder).
13. If you don’t already have your hurricane supplies, you might want to get them now! Before the shelves get empty!
We think this is great advice and it certainly is a great place to start prepping.
However, the question remains – “should we stay or should we go?” and only YOU can answer that! While you watch the weather station, the news stations and make your own plan, you might need a bit more guidance on how to properly prepare than that Facebook post alone.
We’ve collected several more hurricane prep tips and created this handy, shareable infographic.
Above all…
Be safe and secure whether you evacuate or stay for the storm.
A Mandatory Evacuation Leaves Your Home Unattended, or Does It?
Hurricane Hermine, go away!
This is what we are dealing with in Myrtle Beach right now as Hurricane Hermine is rolling in this Friday afternoon.
Pretty scary road conditions, right? And according to the local Myrtle Beach news stations and the Weather Channel, this is JUST the beginning.
This is also ‘just’ a category 1 hurricane turned tropical storm by the time it fully hits the Grand Strand.
Are you prepared for when the next storm hits?
What if the next one is the big one?
Do you know what to do and how to prepare?
When The Big One Hits; You Might Encounter a Mandatory Evacuation.
If you are new to the area or if you’ve never lived in a hurricane zone before now, you might never have experienced a mandatory evacuation before and let us tell you; it’s scary to leave everything you have behind – everything but what fits into your car.
Depending on where you live and your flood zone, you might be one of the first families asked to leave.
There are many ways to prepare for a possible evacuation and all we can say is; plan, prepare and be ready!
But once you leave… it might be a while before you allowed back into your neighborhood!
How Will You Know What’s Happening at Home?
Well, most people don’t know how things are back home once they evacuate! It’s one of the more scary things to encounter during hurricane season – beside losing power, flash floods, falling trees and loss of electricity… just to name a few things that can go wrong.
Here’s another scary thing about the mandatory evacuation; your neighbors will be evacuating as well and no one can keep an eye on your home and your property, or can they?
We Have C.O.P.S Monitoring Our Homes, Even During Natural Disasters and Hurricane Evacuations!
You heard that right!
If you have a Honeywell Total Connect security system in your home, YOU and YOUR MONITORING SERVICE will BOTH be able to keep an eye on your home!
Through the mobile app you will be notified of windows breaking, zones going out and if you have security cameras installed, you can do a physical check on your property as well!
You can do this from your phone or tablet and from the safety of a dry, warm hotel room or a relatives’ home; far, far away from the path of the destructive hurricane!
With Honeywell Total Connect you’ll have peace of mind like few others have when a hurricane rolls in!
Have a plan and be safe!
SIDE NOTE:
If you are a business owner, you will most likely have additional worries and concerns during a mandatory evacuation! It’s imperative to the continued success of your business that you not only have a security system in place during the next hurricane that rolls in, but that you also have a set of security cameras to record and show you in real time what’s happening in your business.
The only world we need to mention is ‘looting‘ and you’ll know what we are talking about!
Need a Security System, Stat?
Please let us know how we may help keep you and yours safe and secure!
How To Best Prepare for An Active Hurricane Season
Do You Know Your Hurricane Evacuation Routes?
If you live in the south (east) of the United States you have to know about hurricane season; really all up and down the east coast you can be affected by hurricanes at any time during the hurricane season. If you have just recently moved south – maybe you just got to Myrtle Beach and you are reading this, you might not really know what the ‘fuss’ is about! We run into newly relocated people (from up north) often and they really have no idea what kind of damage a hurricane can do; both the wind and the water can destroy homes on their own, but putting them together and you’ve got a ‘perfect storm’.
First and foremost, if you do live in the south, you should know your evacuation route and you should have a family emergency plan.
When Is Hurricane Season?
For our North Atlantic area, hurricane season starts in June and runs through November!
This means that as this is published, hurricane season is in full swing and we (meaning you, the reader, and me, the writer) should gets prepared NOW!
From experience, we know a few things about hurricanes. Here are some of the things we do and take care of each season to prepare for a hurricane.
Preparing For A Big Storm
✓ Keep a close eye on the forecast – know what’s happening and when to evacuate.
✓ Stock up on essentials BEFORE mention of any storm (because these supplies will be very hard to find once a storm approaches). Whether you stay home to ‘ride it out’ or you need to go to a shelter, even if you evacuate; you will need these supplies!
- flashlights with batteries
- extra batteries
- power-bank for your phones
- car chargers
- candles and/or hand-cranked light source
- supply of blankets and towels
- water supply – 1 gallon p/p per day
- dry milk
- canned food
- dry food
- cash (because ATMs will run out)
- filled up gas tanks (because gas stations will run out of gas)
- generator (optional)
- gas grill (with extra propane tank)
- plywood to board up your house (optional)
- masking tape to tape off your windows (optional)
- chainsaw (optional – comes in handy when trees are down!)
- create a portable toolkit
- stock your first-aid kit
- water-proof pocket file holder for all your paperwork (insurance cards, medical info, passports, proof of local residency etc)
- if you have pets: vet records, extra food and carriers (so they can evacuate with you)
- hotel reservations for up to 4 days in the city you are evacuating to, if you don’t want to stay locally in a shelter
✓ Let your family and friends know what your plans are and where you are headed!
✓ Connect with your neighbors – together you can figure out when to leave and when it is safe to return after a storm.
✓ Ask elderly neighbors if they have a plan – help them make arrangements if possible.
Here Is What The Experts Say About Preparing For A Big Storm
We found several great online resources for preparing and dealing with an approaching hurricane.
The best place to start is here.
Once you land on that website, you will find all of the following resources at your fingertips!
We recommend you familiarize yourself with this list, read it, act on the tips and then sit back, because along with you, we truly hope this is an inactive hurricane season and we will NOT see a major hurricane!
How Do You Prepare for a Hurricane?
Prepare, plan and stay informed and you will be fine!
We at Strand Security want all of our friends, family and customers to be safe and secure at all times. Our hope is you will start to think of a few things you can do now so that once a storm is approaching you aren’t fully unprepared to get ready. Feel free to ask us how we can help you!
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