Hurricane Prep - 2021?

[SunnyOne]

I know a lot of posters here live in Florida, so I'm seeking a little advice.

In 6 weeks time, I have retired, packed up my earthly possessions and flung myself nearly 1000 miles away from my previous home in order to now reside in Central Florida. This may not be a permanent move, but it's at minimum, a twelve month stay.

The SFH i've rented is a typical, low slung, concrete retirement home. It's lovely and I am content for now - but the local news is reminding me that hurricane season is around the corner. I've been through hurricanes on Long Island and in the Mid Atlantic, so not entirely unfamiliar and yet it seems the Florida hurricanes are more famous lol.

Wondering what I should keep on hand for violent weather? I am used to keeping candles, batteries, bottled water, tuna fish.

What else? What kind of back up charger would you recommend for an iPhone should I end up without service for some time?

My daughter lives in Atlanta, so hopefully in the worst case scenario, I could make it up there.

Thanks

 

[Tom52]

Can you be more specific than central Florida? How far are you from the coast? We live in central florida but not close to coasts so hurricanes are not too severe by the time they get inland where we are.

 

[SunnyOne]

Half hour drive north of downtown Orlando.

 

[Lewis Clark]

Bottles of water will often leak, and take up a lot of space. I'd recommend getting stackable pitchers with lids. We bought a dozen at a dollar store a few years ago. They take little storage space and we will fill them when a storm approaches.

If you plan to board up windows and doors, get the materials and fasteners now, before a storm threatens and supplies vanish. Consider getting hurricane shutters if your home could benefit from them.

Keep a 7-day supply of non-perishable food, snacks, toilet paper, water, other beverages, batteries, candles and matches, flash lights, medicines, lanterns and lantern fuel, and whatever else you may need. You may be without power for several weeks after a bad storm, and it may take emergency supplies a week or more to get to your area. Supplies for any pets. We stock up every spring and use them down in the winter to keep our supplies relatively fresh.

Have a manual can opener on hand.

We have a few gas cans that can be used to fill our cars, or help run the neighbor's generator (they will let us plug in a couple of items like our refrigerator).

If you plan to get a generator, ensure you have an adequate fuel supply on hand.

Consider battery-powered fans and adequate batteries. First aid kit. Moist towelettes and hand sanitizer. A couple of hundred dollars on cash in small bills, in case stores are open but have no power for cash registers.

Florida will have a sales tax holiday from May 28 - June 3 for certain hurricane supplies.

Check out these web sites for more ideas:

https://www.ready.gov/kit

https://www.redcross.org/content/da...Disaster_Preparedness/Hurricane/Hurricane.pdf

https://www.floridadisaster.org/planprepare/hurricane-supply-checklist/

https://hurricanesafety.org/prepare/hurricane-safety-checklists/

Plenty of other web sites have similar checklists. Look at a few web sites to see if they have items others have left out.

The general rule for evacuation is "run from water, shelter from wind". If you are concerned about storm surge or fresh water flooding, you should evacuate.

If you evacuate and go far away, plan to stay away for a couple of days after the storm passes. You'll avoid the traffic jam of other folks who are also returning home. May want to take a gas can in the vehicle when you evacuate because gas can be scarce at times.

 

[Tom52]

Well you are not far from us in The Villages. You are likely far enough inland where it will be more like a tropical storm with high winds and lots of rain. Here about the worst you can expect is shingle damage, tree damage and power outages.

What we do to prepare for hurricane season is to make sure the gas tank in the car never gets below half a tank, and we additionally keep a spare 5 gallon can of gas in garage. We also keep at least $500 cash in small bills in the house. If electricity goes out cash is king. Keep batteries and flashlights handy. We have one of those small battery packs that will jump start a car but also will charge small devices such as cell phones. We normally have plenty of food and bottled water on hand. All power lines here are underground so power outages are extremely rare. We do not have any kind of back up generator. If we know a hurricane is coming directly at us we will fill the bathtub with water to be able to flush toilets in the unlikely event the water is shut off. We don't have a battery powered potable radio but the radios in the vehicles can operate a long time off the car batteries. Last that comes to mind is to make sure you have enough prescription medications on hand to carry you for at least a couple weeks.