Hurrican season is upon us. I've been through a few hurricanes so I thought I'd put together some helpful hints.
Get your hurricane kit ready NOW. You will have too much to do the night before the hurricane (see list below) to spend it getting last minute things at the grocery stores. The stores will be a mad house anyway... save your self the stress
Hurricane Kit
- CASH - $$$ - After Katrina no one had money for anything. There were no ATMs and credit cards were not working
- Water—at least a 3-day supply; one gallon per person per
day - Food - 3 day supply. Canned goods, peanut butter, granola bars, fruit cups, juice
- Note: If you have a gas stove or a grill you will be able to cook without
power - Pet food
- Can opener and/or multi purpose tool like a leatherman
- Masking tape and Duct tape
- Hand sanitizer
- Disinfecting wipes - there's a lot of cleaning to do after the hurricane
- Heavy duty trash bags
- Tarps - I just have the ones from painting
- WD-40 - GREAT for getting that tape off your windows without scrubbing
- Flashlight
- Batteries
- Paper towls and toilet paper
- Portable radio - I have a cool hand crank one with a siren, flashlight radio and cell phone charger on it
- Plastic ziplock with copies of insurance info and other impotant documents (Birth Certs, House Deeds etc)
- Pool shock x 2 - one dose for before the hurricane and one for after
24-48 hours before the Hurricane
- Fill up cars with gas. Fill up extra gas tanks if you have them
- Fill up propane tanks for your gas grill
- Freeze some of your water - this way you have "ready made ice" for your coolers and it's not wasted when it melts because you can drink it
- Charge your cell phones
- Charge all your rechargable power tools (after the hurricane you will need them!)
- Charge your portable devices - laptop, DVD, iPod
- Fill the bathtubs with water and fill a bucket with water and put it next to each toilet in your house - This is for flushing the toilet if you don't have water pressure. I have NEVER had to use this as we have always been fortunate.
- Super chlorinate your pool (if the electricity is out for a while having the extra chlorine will help)
- Bring in grill and back yard furniture -- pool owners if your furniture is all plastic you can sink it in your pool! This saves you some space in the house
- Bring in garden hoses and potted plants
- Board up or tape up windows - Taping won't prevent breakage but it helps prevent the glass shards from flying into the house and onto the floor
- Move breakable items away from windows and doors. Take heavy objects off walls
- Cook a roast, a turkey or a ham - Everyone stresses canned goods but if you cook something large like this the night before the hurricane you have great meat that will keep at temperatures of your cooler for at least 2 days. Trust me PB&J or beans get really boring.
- Run the dishwasher - once the electricity and AC is out you are not going to want to smell THAT
- Do some laundry - again if the electricity is out for a while you will be happy for all the clean socks and underwear
