Hurricane Safety Tips For Your Family

These hurricane safety tips will help you and your family plan for the hurricane season. If you learn now what to do before a hurricane approaches your house, you'll be in a much better position than other people who leave it to the last minute. So please don't wait until it hits and then say to yourself, "I hope that I survive this."

Ocean waves lashing beach as a hurricane approaches

Useful Advice

Never use duct or gorilla tape to protect your windows during a hurricane, as they will simply tear.

Surprisingly, plywood hurricane shutters fail the same large missile test.

Before the hurricane season

Make your house is hurricane proof by ensuring that your garage door is rated as "impact resistant".
Strengthen your house further by placing hurricane straps in your roof and fix any damaged tiles.
Reinforce the windows on your house by getting storm windows or metal storm shutters fitted.
Prevent the build up of loose lying material around your house.
A particularly good hurricane safety tip is to make sure that you reduce the height of tall trees around the yard so you don't have to worry about one of these landing on your roof.
Make sure your gutters and downpipes are free of any leaves and twigs.
Don't leave it to the last minute to buy torches and additional batteries. Most people leave this to the last minute and wonder why they miss out since all the shops have sold out!
Also buy ample water containers, a first aid kit, alternative cooking equipment, and stock up on bandages and essential medicines. Most of these items are located in hurricane survival kits.

The next couple of hurricane safety tips shouldn't be taken lightly.

Make sure that your pets can be relocated to a safe location. If they stay with you, there is the possibility that they may run away in sheer terror.
Ensure that your house insurance policy definitely covers hurricane and flood damage.
If you haven't got a back-up battery operated transistor radio that works then you'll need to get one. Why? If there is a power failure, this might be your only method of receiving critical updates of the hurricanes location, as well as listening to additional warnings and advice. However, if your cell/mobile phone has access to the internet then you won't have to worry about this.
Buy some spare batteries for your cell/mobile phone.
Also, another essential thing to buy is some heavy duty plastic garbage bags.

So when a hurricane warning is issued for your area, you'll be well prepared. Just carefully go through and mark off each of the hurricane safety tips as you have complete them. A list of further hurricane safety tips is below:

When a hurricane is approaching

Double check that your metal storm shutters or hurricane tape are fitted properly over your windows.
Completely remove all loose items around your house, especially garden tools, kids toys and outdoor furniture since hurricane winds have the potential of turning these into missiles. Those items that can't be removed need to thoroughly secured and tied down.
If you haven't got storm windows or genuine hurricane tape, then you can quickly increase the strength of your house windows by sticking bits of newspaper on the windows with glue made from either starch or flour. Then place ordinary duct tape over the top of the newspaper.
Reinforce all your doors.
Go out and fill your automobile with gas/fuel and then move it to a secure location. Hopefully you now have impact resistant garage doors so that should keep your vehicle safe.
Place your pets in a secure location or take them to an animal shelter facility where they can be provided with extra protection. Your animals may need to go to the toilet so you need to be prepared for this. When the wind and torrential rain are bashing against the house, your pets will need reassurance and attention.
Now fill up any empty water containers as well as the bath.
Go through the house and secure loose items and place important documents in waterproof bags. Furthermore, place all your clothes in the heavy duty plastic bags that you have recently bought as these provide the best protection against water damage.
Keep logged onto the NOAA website so you can keep up to date with the latest hurricane warnings or listen to these warnings on your weather radio.
An important hurricane safety tip is this: if your house is in a known low lying area where the storm tide height can reach your house, you may need to evacuate to a hurricane shelter facility before the hurricane hits so as to avoid serious injuries.

During the hurricane

The following hurricane safety tips are vitally important.

Disconnect your electrical equipment since you don't want this to start a fire if there's a power surge since you've got enough to contend with.
Make sure everyone is safely inside the house. Don't let anyone go outside even if it appears that the wind has decreased substantially.
If the hurricane makes a direct hit, you'll soon be right in the middle of the storm. There is normally very little wind during this time and the sky may even be clear of clouds. DON'T go outside during this time.
There are numerous occasions when the thunderstorm clouds that are rotating around the calm centre (the eye) spawn tornadoes. The winds from these tornadoes can come from any direction and are stronger than hurricane winds so make sure you stay secure.
As soon as the eye moves passed your location, the winds will blow almost as strong from the opposite direction. So what wasn't destroyed on one side of the house may be under threat on the other side.
Keep listening to your radio and heed the advice given.
I would advise that you go to the strongest part of your house and stay there. This is normally the bathroom or basement.
If your house does start to get ripped apart then get yourself and your family under a strong table or bed and surround yourself in blankets or a mattress for extra protection.
Make sure you can get access to your hurricane survival kits if need be.
If you are forced to leave your house then put on some tough wearing clothing and shoes so it helps shield you from getting scratched from debris.
If you live right on the coastline remember that the action of the waves are much more damaging to your house than the wind will ever be.
You must be aware of the storm surge which will occur as the hurricane approaches. The sea level rises higher and higher the closer the hurricane comes. This occurs not from the wind but from the drop in atmospheric pressure. Combined with this effect, the incredibly strong winds encourage large bodies of water to be forced further inland than normal. This phenomena is known as a storm surge.

After the hurricane

Only go outside once you have been told officially that the hurricane has passed.
If you do go outside, you may get lost since all the previous landmarks you have used for direction may have been destroyed.
Don't make too many phone calls since this will prevent emergency calls from getting through.
To prevent mold buildup in your house, open all your doors and windows so you get some air circulation.
Remember native animals have been displaced so keep your eyes open for snakes and other animals if they happen to wander into your house.
Keep your radio turned on and listen for further instructions
Once you're allowed to go outside, make sure that you stay well away from damaged power lines and poles.
Make sure to take photos of any damage done to your home so you can claim it back on insurance. Do this as soon as you can or else the insurance company may not pay out.
I would only drive in an emergency since it is too easy to get lost when everything is demolished. Secondly, a lot of roads will be impassable due to flooding so you may not be able to drive too far anyway. So if you're planning to check out how much damage was done, then heed the advice of officials before doing so.