How To Get Ready For Hurricanes

Most men I know get excited about Football season or Basketball season, but down here in the South, we all get our supplies ready for the dreaded annual Hurricane Season. It’s early August in 2022 and if I’m being honest, I kind of feel like we have been coasting along without incident so far this year. That said, we all know that Mother Nature is like the IRS and she is going to show her unattractive face and collect her pound of flesh.

Ok, so with that out of the way, let’s talk basics here. Most times when a hurricane delivers the ole’ one two punch, your power is only out for about 24-48 hours, so that’s what the majority of these products are geared towards. Obviously you could find yourself in an extended power down situation, but that is for another post.

It’s 3PM on a Tuesday and your power goes out, because a storm is rolling towards you. First things first, report the outage and if you are anything like me, you place a stick between your freezer and refrigerator door to prevent anyone from opening them. Once you have that sorted, it’s time to move on to light and power, flood prevention, information and finally, food, water and comfort. Thats the order in which we handle them around here.

Light + Power

We have a couple of old faithfuls in this department that we use every single year. I like to keep an assortment of solar and battery powered lights on hand to help us navigate the sudden loss of power. Every single product here gets used in different ways from lighting up a room when the power first goes out (Westinghouse 3 in 1 Power Failure Lights, Wave Bars and Flashlight), rechargeable and solar lanterns for providing comfort and overall lighting and hands free headlamps, which give us hands free light when we need to move around freely. The small lights for the little ones are helpful for them to navigate around and feel safe.

You also need a way to power all of these devices, so we keep our solar chargers and batteries at the ready.

Flood Prevention

This one is much more simple. You really have two main choices; the back breaking work of filling and placing sandbags OR a product that people stop at my house to ask me where to get them. Quick Dam is a company that makes these thin, ultra lightweight and reusable bags, which are activated by the rain. They come in multiple sizes (5 foot, 10 foot, etc) and you can stack them for an even better level of protection.

Again, I live in Louisiana and 2016, this entire area was underwater. There is nothing that costs more money, pain, time and stress than flooding during hurricane season. The rain will come. Be prepared, unfold them and relax. We did not have any water damage, because of this product. Most of our neighbors were not so fortunate.

I personally presoak them by running water from the hose onto them at the beginning of the season and then I just leave them in place until basically Thanksgiving. After the season is over, you just lay them out in the sun to day for a few days and roll them back up for next year.

Communication

So, the phones are down you may need to communicate with the outside world, or even across your own property with people in your family. These walkie talkies have an amazing range and they are built to last, as we have had ours for more than a decade. The kids can stay in one room while you have to take care of property issues and they can feel safe and connected to you with the press of the walkie talkie button.

One of the worst feelings during a storm is feeling cut off and isolated and unsure about what is going on. Don’t rely on your phone to keep you up to date. We have lost phone service during all major storms and had no way to receive updates, except for our emergency radios. Finally, if you need to communicate to rescue workers that you are trapped, don’t rely on being able to yell loud enough to be heard. Simply blow one of these emergency whistles and alert people that you need help.

Food + Water + Comfort

It goes without saying that you may have to prepare your own food for a few meals, so having either canned food or a way to prepare food is essential. Sure, you could rely on a propane grill and you can wait in line for hours with everyone else to buy or refill them. We just have a simple fold out grill, a charcoal starter and charcoal, which has never let us down. This is what we use.

Just a side note. Make sure you have a way to make coffee, because that could put your family in more danger than the hurricane. lol. This Stanley French Press has saved many, many lives. Finally, it is so important to keep everyone cool and calm. Everyone in my family has their own fan, which can be recharged with the solar Jackery. They can point it directly onto themselves when the power is down to keep cool. If you also have one of the cooling towels around your neck, you will be more than comfortable until the air kicks back on.

Well, I could go on and on and include waterproof backpacks, inflatable life boats and more. The list of things that you could buy to insulate yourself from every eventuality is limitless, but this is enough stuff to keep you safe, full and happy until the storm passes. Let me know of any items that you think I should look at. Thanks for spending some time with me. Stay safe out there guys. See you in the next one!