Once Upon A Hurricane Season

on September 10, 2024

A PREPARATION CHECKLIST

Do you know what day it is? According to the NOAA, September 10th is the statistically peak day of hurricane season along the Atlantic basin. Hurricane season begins on June 1st along the east coast, with a spike in activity between mid-August and mid-October due to a perfect storm of wind, moisture and temperature conditions. Seventy-eight percent of tropical storm days, eighty-seven percent of minor hurricane days (categories 1 and 2) and ninety-six percent of major hurricane days (categories 3, 4 & 5) occur annually during this timeframe.

While hurricane season strikes fear in the minds of many coastal dwellers, you may be able to lessen its impact on your home or office with preparation. As you might guess, the best time to prepare for a hurricane is right now, BEFORE a storm ever hits. If you haven’t already done this, here are some tips we here at CupOCode put into practice to secure our own properties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Preparing Your Property for a Hurricane

Evaluate your property’s ability to withstand a storm. Check your roof for missing or damaged shingles, low spots or rot. Note window and door wind ratings and board if necessary or if you are on the beach where wind speeds will be strongest.
Clean your gutters. Clogged gutters can cause overflow in the wrong areas along your roofline and house. Clear gutters help to channel this excess water away from your home.
Purchase a generator and/or service any pre-owned. Some newer properties come with whole house generators where they are wired in and come on automatically when your property loses power. Other options for generator access include a hookup in your electrical panel, usually installed by an electrician, or the old school way of removing a door handle and running an extension cord outside to your generator. Either way, be sure to have plenty of fuel to keep your generator running for several days. Essential items to run on a generator may include A/C to prevent mold growth, refrigerators/freezers and occasional lights.
Remove threatening trees or branches. This includes any dead or weakened trees that could fall and damage your house.
Secure loose objects in your yard. Things like trampolines, lawn furniture, tiki torches, etc. could become projectiles during high winds.
Make sure your land is graded away from your house and garage doors. Prepare poorly graded areas with sandbags to prevent water from entering.
Service your chainsaws and have fuel on hand for them.
Fuel all your vehicles.
Secure hard drives in an airtight space. (Note: Dishwashers are supposedly airtight for anything you can’t take with you but needs to stay dry.)
Wash all your clothes & dishes prior to the storm.
Fill bathtubs, sinks and pitchers with water for both flushing and drinking.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Many people struggle with deciding when to stay and ride out a hurricane or when to evacuate. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to this question, we follow these guidelines to aid us in making that call:

Is there a mandatory evacuation order for your area? If so, obey, and obey promptly before it is too late to safely exit your area.
What is the projected path and category when the hurricane reaches your area? Historically, hurricanes can both slow down or speed up unexpectedly and make unpredictable path changes. For this reason, making the decision to stay or leave should typically wait until about two days before impact. Be prepared for either decision, but execute when the hurricane’s path and strength have solidified for your area. Oftentimes people will evacuate into the path of a hurricane because they jumped the gun and left too far in advance!
Do you have resources to leave or stay? While this should never be a reason to stay in harm’s way, the reality still exists that sometimes we are better set up for one versus the other. Weigh carefully how vulnerable you and your family will be with either decision and act accordingly.
Will your health allow you to stay/leave? Some people are far too fragile to move, so they and/or their caretakers may not have the option of evacuating. Others may have serious health conditions where staying would be out of the question should they be unable to get the medical attention they need. Good health can help you ride out most storms, but if you’re vulnerable health-wise or require equipment and facilities for treatment, you must consider and weigh this carefully before deciding on whether or not to leave.

Preparing to Stay for a Hurricane

If you’ve decided to remain home during a hurricane, be sure to collect and prepare the following items:

Water (Every year I watch countless people stock up on hoards of bottled water. Save yourself some money and be prepared with a quality water filter instead. I’m a fan of the Berkey brand, and it is literally one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. Water will likely not be potent for several days if not longer after a hurricane, so clean water is essential. You can also pre-fill your tub and various containers with water in preparation.)
Flashlights & batteries
Food (Choose food that requires no refrigeration such as bread, peanut butter, jelly, crackers, canned goods, etc.)
Propane Stove (A camping style propane stove will do the trick. Even minor hurricanes have the potential to knock out power grids, so be prepared to boil water or cook food.)
Emergency radio (Preferably buy a solar or hand crank radio with a phone charging option.)
Generator & gas
Chainsaw & gas (Make sure to service it ahead of the storm!)

Preparing to Leave for a Hurricane

Even if you decide to stay, you need to be prepared to leave should things take a turn for the worse. In addition to preparing your property, fueling/servicing your vehicles and choosing a location that will be out of harm’s way, be sure to plan your evacuation route. You need to actually drive it ahead of time and look for low spots that could flood. Try to avoid routes that cross creeks, for instance.

Be Prepared

We hope that this season passes us by with no major storms. However, being vigilant regardless of whether or not a hurricane hits will reduce its impact on our property as well as our physical well-being. Be safe, make good choices, and don’t forget to be a good neighbor, too.