If any of my followers are in the path of Hurricane Florence (or any other hurricane, once this post is no longer relevant), I know you guys don’t get hurricanes very often, and you might be thinking it’s not such a big deal, or you might know it’s a big deal, but not what to do.
First of all, I’m not any kind of storm prep expert. There are .govs and google searches that will give you more in-depth information than this post. But
I’ve lived on swamps and beaches most of my life, and this is what my family does.
Apologies in advance for the long post.
1 – EVACUATE
If a storm is big (and Florence is big), and you can afford it, you want to evacuate. Note – you don’t have to buy bottled water and emergency food if you’re evacuating. That’s only if you’re staying.
Round up your family and pets, any meds you might need for two or three weeks, important documents, and a box of irreplaceable stuff (family photos, heirlooms, etc) and travel a significant distance away from the path of the storm and stay at a hotel or with family. Your local news will tell you how far away you should go. IF YOU CAN, fill your car with gas, because traffic will crawl at less than two miles an hour during an evacuation.
Don’t bring a lot of cash. Thieves often target evacuees. Bring credit cards.
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS BEHIND. Areas hit hard enough by hurricanes are sometimes LOCKED, meaning nobody is allowed to go in, no matter what. Entire towns can be locked for up to a month. The National Guard cannot and will not feed your pets for you. Your pets will die if you leave them behind. Don’t do that to them or to yourself. Always. Bring. Pets.
Comfort Items: Bring the playstation. You can plug it into the hotel TV and it’ll help take your mind off the anxiety. Same goes for books, stuffed animals, board games if your family’s into that. Don’t bring the things you think you should read/watch/do, bring the things you know you’ll actually enjoy. (If you’ve got kids, they might be excited to catch Pokemon in a city they’ve never been to. You might be, too. Go ahead and enjoy little things like that. ^_~)
2. HUNKER DOWN
This is generally not recommended unless you’re used to dealing with storms and willing to take the risk, but if you can’t afford to go, you don’t have much of a choice.
If you’re accustomed to being snowed in, flooded in, etc, preparation for a hurricane is very similar. Have food, water, and medication for everyone in the house, enough to last two weeks. Get multiple power bricks for your phone and charge them all. Text, don’t call – it’s more likely to get through and it uses less power. Have a weather radio to keep up with what’s going on. Stock up on sanitary wipes. You know the kind – in the toilet paper or baby aisle. You might not be able to take baths for a while, and those will keep you clean and healthy. Also little plastic bags, in case the plumbing goes out. There’s no trash pickup after a hurricane, so you’ll want everything to be tied up as securely as possible.
Comfort Items: Battery-powered fans and lights. If you can’t find any, consider the candy aisle of your grocery store for those novelty candy toy fans, and the home decor aisle for fairy lights. Having a little bit of light in the evenings and a cool breeze in the heat of the day will make ALL the difference, I promise you. Batteries will only keep those going for about ten hours, so make sure you’ve got enough batteries to keep everything going for several days.
3. OH CRAP, THE STORE IS SOLD OUT OF _______
Water shortage? No vienna sausage? DON’T PANIC.
Water: Your tap water is clean before the hurricane. After the hurricane, it might be filthy. Your weather radio will put out notices once or twice a day telling you if the water is okay or not. Buy a bunch of pitchers with lids and fill them with water before the storm. Put them in your fridge. The lids and the fridge door will keep bugs/dust/etc away from the water. For your washing/flushing water, fill rubbermaids (again, the kind with a lid) in the bath tub. Open the lid when you need the water, keep it closed the rest of the time.
Food: You don’t have to eat vienna sausage and canned tuna after a hurricane. You just have to eat food that doesn’t need refrigeration.
Fresh fruit – apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, kiwis, grapes, small watermelon.
Meat/Protein – powdered milk, individual-serving boxed milk, jerky sticks, peanuts, cashews, almonds, cheese sticks (the room temperature singles they sold alongside the jerky)
Starch/Snacks – Some stores have a bakery section apart from their bread aisle. You’ll often find bags of hoagies, baguettes, melba, etc just sitting there forgotten because people panic and don’t think about it. Pick up donuts and cookies, too. I don’t care if you’re on a diet, that superficial endorphin burst that comes with eating sugar will help immensely.
4. STATUS BUDDY
Heh, heh, some of you will recall I learned this accidentally last year. ^^; You might unexpectedly lose power for several days, weeks, etc. Ask a friend or relative (somebody you know irl and trust) to keep your friends in the know. You can either tell your friends the buddy’s account, to follow and keep up with public posts, or you can ask your buddy to give private updates to your friends through PMs, into you discord group, etc. Text your buddy and let them know how you’re doing until you’ve got access to electricity/internet again.
Okay, so that was my long-ass post. I hope you guys find it helpful. If you don’t need it, pass it to any friends who do. And don’t use it as the be-all end-all guide to surviving a hurricane. Also don’t panic if you can’t do everything I’ve listed here. This is more of extra stuff that doesn’t make it into the important official guides.
Help your neighbors, rely on each other, and pay attention to what your city officials and meteorologists say.
You guys can get through this!
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