How To Prepare For a Hurricane

How you prepare for a hurricane will depend on what type of home you live in as well as where you live. I live in Canada, so the way I prepare for a Hurricane is extremely different from how someone who lives in Florida would. They get hit a lot harder than Canada does. If you live in a house your prep will be more in-depth than someone who lives in an apartment. If you live waterfront, your prep will be different than someone who lives inland.

I live in a house in Canada that is not close to a body of water, so this article is based off of that. We Just experienced Fiona, and while prepping for it I realized how many people in our neighbourhood were new to the province and were inexperienced with hurricane prep.

What You Need To Do Before a Hurricane

Before the hurricane hits, you need to do some things to ensure you’re prepared.

Prepare Your Home/Yard

You need to get ahead of the storm. If you live in places that get hit extremely hard, I’m not positive about what to do.

If you live in a place that gets hit but not life-threatening hit, these are what you need to do:

• Take out your storm kit and power outage kit. If you don’t have one you can read about what to put in an emergency storm kit here.
• Pick up anything in your yard or on your deck that could fly away. You don’t want your property to damage your home or your neighbour’s homes.
• Tie down anything that can’t be brought into the house. Use bungee cords, zip ties, and rope. I use a bike lock to lock some of my items down as well.
• If you’re on a well system you will want to fill bathtubs up with water and have jugs of water on hand for flushing toilets and drinking clean water.

Pre-Plan For After The Storm

Depending on where you live and how hard the storm hits, you’re probably going to have a few problems you will have to deal with after the storm. Long power outages, damage to your property, flooding, etc. So you want to ensure you’re prepared for these problems

• Is your propane tank full so you can cook on the BBQ after the storm ends, or do you have a small propane stove for camping?
• Do you have a generator? You’ll want to ensure you have enough gasoline to run that for a few days
• Are your vehicles filled with gasoline? You may have to evacuate, and there won’t be time to get gas
• Do you have cash on you? You may have to evacuate and power outages will make it impossible to use your debit or credit cards.
• Make sure your storm kit has candles, matches, flashlights, etc for power outages
• Charge all your power banks and devices. You may not get a chance to do that after the storm.
• Do you have enough food and water to get you through 3-4 days? Make sure the food is able to be made without electricity, and doesn’t require refrigeration.

What To Do During The Storm

I suggest making it fun. When my kids were little they would get really scared of storms so I made them fun. To this day they get excited about storms.

Make sandwiches for dinner so you can eat if the power goes out. My biggest fear is the power going out while cooking, so sandwiches have always been my go-to for dinner or lunch. Buy bags of popcorn and chips and cuddle up with blankets to watch movies if you still have power, or play board games. Finish the night off with a giant sleepover in the living room.

If you have little ones, click here for my tips on how to make power outages fun for them.

What To Do After The Storm

Once the storm is over you need to assess any damages.

• If you have any broken windows tarp them up. You would actually do this when it happens. I do not suggest waiting till the storm is done.
• If you have no power you can cook on the BBQ.
• Fun tip: If you’re a coffee addict like me, you can boil water on the BBQ and use this French press to make coffee.
• If you need emergency help call 911 or see if a neighbour or someone close could help.

Be patient. If you’re lucky enough to not have severe damage or life-threatening injuries, please remember not everyone was so lucky. Crews are being dispatched and it will take time.

If you have any tips or tricks on how to prepare for a hurricane, I would love to hear about them in the comment section.