I was really busy this past week with a final paper for a class I am taking, as well as monitoring and preparing for the potential impact of hurricane Dorian. We've lived in South Carolina just over a year now, and this is the third hurricane we've prepared for, so I wanted to share some things that I've learned.
Preparing for a tropical storm or hurricane is very much like preparing for a blizzard back in Iowa, everyone is running to the stores picking up their milk, bread, eggs, and water. Here is what I do.
A week or so before the storm:
- Check my pantry stores
- Check our pet food and cat litter supply
- Check my supply of candles, batteries, charcoal and propane, matches, and strikers
(I have a gas stove a well as both a charcoal grill and a propane grill)
- Purchase disposable plates, cutlery, and jugs or bottles of water (if I don't already have enough on hand)
- Check out our first aid supplies
- Fill any prescriptions
- Locate my copy of my state's hurricane preparedness manual as well as our important papers
- Fill up the two 5-gallon gas containers we keep on hand
- Withdraw $100 in cash in case I may be unable to use my debit card or access an ATM due to power outages.
A day or two before a potential storm:
- Double-check my pantry stores
- Make sure our vehicles are filled up with gas
- Put a few extra jugs of water in my deep freeze to help keep things cold in the event of a power outage.
- We have both a shower and a tub, so I scrub out my bathtub and fill it with water (this is an easy, but often overlooked way to store a large amount of clean water)
*this gets used to water plants etc., it doesn't go to waste.
- Charge power blocks for electronics and put rechargeable batteries on chargers (we try to always buy rechargeable batteries)
-Collect all our flashlights
- if a serious impact seems likely, I will cook any large pieces of meat I have on hand, and put them in zip-top bags or storage containers, that way they are easier to get used up if the electricity is out for an extended period of time.
- I will also do some baking to have additional food on hand such as banana bread or this sunshine breakfast loaf I love.
- Write out a flexible meal-plan that we can make if the electricity does go out.
- Make sure to keep up with any dishes and laundry so that we have clean things without using our water to wash.
We are about 100 miles inland and live on high ground, so things like sandbagging and boarding up windows are rarely necessary.
What do you do to prepare for extreme weather in your area?
-Nichole
This is a great blog post, Nichole. We always fill up our bathtub too as we are all electric here and if we lose power we cannot flush the commode. But with water we can still empty the bowl.
ReplyDeleteI forgot where I first heard about filling up the tub for clean water, but it's such a great tip.
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