Ensuring Safety: A Comprehensive Guide to Preparing Your Home for Hurricane Season
May 6, 2024
Learn how to prepare your home for hurricane season in our comprehensive guide.
Hurricane season can be a formidable period for homeowners in coastal and even inland areas. Learning to prepare your home for such a season is crucial to mitigate damage and protect your family. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to prepare your home for hurricane season.
Understanding the Risk
Hurricane risks aren't exclusive to coastal communities. Inland areas can also be at risk due to the heavy rains and winds that hurricanes bring, which often result in inland flooding and may even trigger tornadoes. You can assess your area's risk by reviewing historical hurricane data and tracking current storms on the NOAA website. This will enable you to make the necessary preparations and develop an evacuation plan if needed.
Preparing Your Home
The best time to start preparing your home for hurricane season is before it begins. When a storm is imminent, you may not have adequate time, or the materials you need may be difficult to find.
Preparing the Exterior of Your Home
There are several steps you can take to prepare your home's exterior for a hurricane:
- Trim hedges and trees. Tree branches and limbs near your roof can turn into dangerous projectiles during a hurricane. Trim them away from your house and remove as many dead branches and limbs as possible.
- Reinforce windows. Installing storm shutters over your windows can provide significant protection. If you're searching for a last-minute solution, boarding your windows can be effective.
- Check window and door seals. Ensuring the seals around your windows and doors are in good condition is vital to preventing water from seeping into your home.
- Use sandbags. While they can't stop larger floods, sandbags can divert the flow of water away from your house.
- Clean your gutters. An unobstructed gutter system allows water to flow away from your roof, preventing potential roof damage.
- Clear your lawn. Any object on your lawn could become a dangerous projectile during a hurricane. Clear your lawn of sticks, rocks, and decorations.
- Secure your garage door. Garage doors can be weak spots during hurricanes. Installing a reinforced garage door or using braces can help to reinforce it.
Preparing You and Your Family
While securing your home's exterior is crucial, there are also steps you can take to ensure your family's safety inside your home.
- Create an emergency kit. Include items like non-perishable food, water, flashlights, batteries, a water purification method, and first aid supplies.
- Prepare for power outages. Have a backup gas-powered generator, flashlights, or electric lanterns ready in case of power outages.
- Secure important documents. Store important documents like your will, deed, or birth certificates in a secure, waterproof container and back them up on the cloud.
Performing an Insurance Checkup
Most homeowners insurance covers wind damage, but not flood damage. That's why it's essential to perform an insurance checkup and make sure you have the coverage you need. If you need to file a claim after a hurricane, you can facilitate the claims process by using a Home Inventory Checklist.
Having a Hurricane Evacuation Plan
Having a hurricane evacuation plan can make a significant difference when disaster strikes. It's important to plan each step of your family's evacuation plan, have a destination in mind, and plan an evacuation route.
Packing and Preparing the Essentials
- Evacuation kit. This should include batteries, a flashlight, mobile phone, food, water, emergency radio, blankets, extra clothes, toiletries, and a first aid kit.
- Special needs plan. Consider any additional needs for infants, elderly family members, or anyone in your home with special needs.
- Pet plan. Remember to pack for your pets too.
- Vehicle preparation. Ensure your vehicle is in driving condition and has a full tank.
- Cash. Cash can be handy in emergency scenarios when mobile pay or credit cards may not be available.
Dispelling Hurricane Myths
It's crucial to dispel dangerous hurricane myths to ensure that you're acting on accurate information during a hurricane.
- Myth 1: Category 1 hurricanes aren't dangerous. Even category 1 hurricanes can cause significant damage.
- Myth 2: Only coastal communities are at risk. Hurricanes can reach hundreds of miles inland, posing a risk to inland communities as well.
- Myth 3: Flooding only happens on the coast. Storm surges can travel tens of miles inland, and rains from the hurricane can cause flooding hundreds of miles away from the coast.
- Myth 4: Taping windows prevents them from breaking. Taping your windows doesn't prevent them from breaking. It's better to install storm shutters or board your windows.
- Myth 5: Opening a window or door can relieve pressure within your home. No house is sealed well enough for pressure to build to the point of becoming dangerous.
- Myth 6: Only reinforce windows and doors facing the coast. Every door and window will eventually face the wind during a hurricane.
- Myth 7: If it is clear outside, you're safe. You might be experiencing the calm within the eye of the hurricane.
- Myth 8: The top story of a house or building is the safest place to be. The best place to take shelter during a hurricane depends on the conditions around you.
- Myth 9: Winds are the deadliest part of a hurricane. Flooding is actually responsible for the greatest death toll during a hurricane.
- Myth 10: It's okay to wait to evacuate. It's essential to evacuate well in advance of a hurricane's arrival.
- Myth 11: It can't happen here because it hasn't happened here before. All coastal states and communities need to remain cautious and prepare for the worst.
- Myth 12: A hurricane's wind speed indicates the damage it will do. The hurricane rating system does not consider potential rainfall, storm surge, or the size of the storm's wind field.
- Myth 13: If I'm on the edge of the "cone," I'm safe. If you live anywhere close to the possible path of a hurricane, you should be prepared for the worst.
- Myth 14: Leaning on a door will prevent it from blowing in. Hurricane-force winds can easily blow open doors, windows, and garage doors.
- Myth 15: My insurance will cover all the damage from a hurricane. Standard property insurance policies provide protection from many things, including some of the damages caused by a hurricane, but they do not cover flood damage.
In conclusion, preparing your home for hurricane season can save lives and mitigate damage. Follow this guide to ensure your family's safety during hurricane season.
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by
Lauren Maass
About the Author
Lauren Maass is a Marketing Coordinator at Germania Insurance.
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