u/Familiar-Anything853

August is always the month where I triple check all my hurricane preps because although season starts in June, it ramps up in earnest now. So I figured I’d write my preps out!

We live in the USA Deep South, about a 5 minute drive to the beach & have 4 kids. My husband has been here his entire life and I’ve been here 15 years, so we have our hurricane routine down pat.

Here’s what we do for hurricane season in general, including some things I don’t always see mentioned on the lists:
-check all the windows and door seals
-ensure gutters cleaned out
-get up on the roof and inspect the shingles
-monthly check of emergency storage bins in case we have to evacuate (there are tons of lists online for these)
-deep pantry stock
-propane & gas cans stay filled
-several 5 gallon buckets of sand, several dozen empty sand bags ready
-check fasteners for window coverings (remain on the house) & check on the actual window coverings (stored in our garage)
-keep outdoor debris minimal, maintain the yard
-watch the yard during normal rainstorms to ensure water is flowing away from the house
-look at retention ponds within a couple miles of my house, report any to the county that are stagnant or not flowing (they’re all connected on a system)
-charge our Anker power station
-charge all battery fans, lanterns, & portable chargers
-keep the cars gassed up
-make sure kids life jackets still fit them
-SWIM LESSONS
-truly most importantly making sure my kids (even my toddler) knows our address, phone numbers, full names, and what to do in an emergency

Here’s a good portion of what we do if a hurricane is heading toward us & we’re staying:
-refresh the weather news sources a million times
-get out emergency bins & cat carriers, place by the door
-move all patio furniture inside
-anchor down the swing set, disassemble the trampoline
-break out the generator & power station, batten down the windows
-clean the entire house (people overlook this but I have seen SO many people get bug infestations after hurricanes because their house wasn’t clean to begin with and then they didn’t have power for weeks and couldn’t vacuum up food crumbs! Bugs are already trying to come inside when it floods, don’t make it more hospitable!)
-do ALL laundry (your favorite, most worn clothes are in the wash!)
-sand bags in front of doors (wind will blow water under the door)
-shower frequently
-eat frozen foods up
-fill empty freezer spaces with gallon ziploc bags of ice- the ice maker should be running 24/7 to keep up with me
-2 videos: one of every single room inside my house in detail, one of outside for insurance
-pack a cooler with drinks so we can have cold drinks without opening the fridge for the first couple days. It gets SO hot.
-build a big bed fort in the living room where we all sleep together
-make sure you have lots of water one way or another. Whether it’s gallon jugs, filling the tub, etc.
-strategically place lanterns & battery fans around the house

If you think you’ll evacuate, go early! If you have family inland, that’s always the smart thing to do. Being able to evacuate for a hurricane is a privilege- not everyone has family somewhere else or can afford to leave their homes, and not everywhere has shelters with space. If you’re going to stay, be smart about it.

Even if you’re reading this and saying to yourself, “there’s absolutely zero chance a hurricane will ever affect me,” it doesn’t hurt to prep like one will. You just never know. And 99% of hurricane preps will make you more prepared for any Tuesday :)

For those that rely on municipal water, have you changed your preps based on the recent cyberattacks? We are not on well water, but honestly even if we were I would be thinking about electrical grid attacks.

(If you don’t know, check it out- there were numerous cyberattacks affecting water sources across the USA, allegedly linked to Iran)

We have a couple rain barrels but they collect from our asphalt shingles so we don’t want to drink it. We live in an area that gets 22+ inches of rain per year and have a retention pond, but I also don’t love the inevitable amount of pesticides and fertilizers which run into that water from neighbors.

We have numerous of filtering methods but I don’t know if any of them would actually filter out the carcinogens in these sources. I’m thinking of getting a 55 gallon drum and filling it with treated water in my garage (mostly climate controlled- insulated and rarely opened). But that’s not a renewable resource, once it’s gone it’s gone if the city water is out.

Interested to hear how others are prepping potable water!

I don’t see this mentioned much but it’s become a huge part of my prep, and I consider it to be somewhat prepping in plain sight!

I have become a humble but enthusiastic foodscaper. I live in an HOA community in the southeast on 1/4 acre. It was really all we could afford in our area and we aren’t moving for personal reasons.

I have a small hobby vegetable garden (HOA caps us at 150sf), and I’ve made it my mission to make nearly everything in my yard edible. I have apple, peach, and (cold hardy) banana trees that are ornamental but functional. Grape vines trellised beautifully over my patio. In my garden beds I grow all kinds of herbs, fig/pecan trees, edible flowers, etc. I replaced all my bushes with berry bushes (blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, etc). I grow strawberries and sweet potatoes as ground cover. Kale, Swiss chard, garlic, etc. interplanted. My patio has potted citrus trees that move to the garage over winter. It’s only been a few years and we already yield enough that we don’t buy much produce.

Highly recommend this approach if you live in suburbia - and if you’re doing this already, I will always take more ideas! I do love a challenge.

Zone 8.