Hurricane Preparation

Our family survived direct and/or near-direct hits from Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan in 2004.  What a mess that was.  The roof was damaged in several places so we had leaking inside the house with some water damage, our pool screen was torn up in several places, our large storage shed was pretty much destroyed...debris all over the front and back yard.  Our whole neighborhood / city is squirrel heaven with all the oak trees and pieces of them were everywhere.   I don't ever want to live through that again.  And that was MINOR compared to reports from friends of ours who had a direct hit from Hurricane Andrew  (Category 5) in 1992.

I remember about 10 men from our church plus our two sons (ages 15 and 10) being up on the roof with roofing paper, pitch, hammers and nails.  I was so thankful that they were available to help.

There's not much you can do to prevent  a hurricane or tornado from striking but you can at least make the basic preparations:

• Make sure you have adequate insurance coverage--homeowners, auto and medical--deductibles for home damage on a "named" storm is 2% of the value of your home these days. We were VERY fortunate in 2004 that ours was 1% and we only had to pay it once.  Some insurance companies required a deductible for EACH storm. Check with your agent ahead of time what their policy is.
• Stock up on extra bottled water and non-perishable food, batteries, candles, matches, flashlights
• Refill your prescriptions if needed
• Fill every car with gas BEFORE the storm arrives
• Have plenty of cash on hand (ATM's may be down)
• If you have a generator, test it to make sure it is in good working order
• Battery operated radio
• If you have a gas or charcoal grill, get plenty of fuel
• Make and store extra ice in bags and coolers.  If the power goes out, it will keep your refrigerator/freezer cold for a few days.
• Have a plan if the power goes out.  Where can I store perishable food? where can we stay for a few days until the power comes on? where can my pet stay?
• Charge all cell phones, iPods, laptops, etc.
• Buy disposable dishes, paper plates, cups... and plenty of trash bags (big brown ones for yard trash and tall kitchen bags, too)
• Buy chlorine, plenty of it.  If you have a pool, get extra 5-gallon jugs of it BEFORE the storm.   Our power went out for 8 days with Hurricane Charlie and just adding a jug + tablets every few days kept it from turning green.  A green pool is really hard to return to sparkling.
• Bring lightweight items under shelter--patio chairs, floats, decorative items, potted plants... Flying objects can be a problem and cause damage.
• Trim your trees, especially small low-hanging branches

For more suggestions on preparations, go to THIS LINK.

We wait and pray that Hurricane Irene which is predicted to be a Category 4 this weekend, stays FAR off the coast of Florida.  Even so, winds and water here will be significant.  While much of the U.S. is experiencing drought conditions, the city of Orlando has actually DRAINED down some of the lakes in preparation for Friday.