Hurricane Prepare List

Enough water for 8 days. I would have 8, 5 gallon jugs for two people so I wouldn't have to be out grubbling around in flooded streets for water a few days after a bad storm.

Enough food for 5 days. You can get more food after the storm. They never completely ran out. Just enough for a long storm and a day or two after during which time you'll also be devouring the contents of your fridge as fast as you can.

Wind up radio will be no use. The stations go off and you can't get the distant ones unless you've got a booster and that has to be stuck outside the house.However, juice up your laptop battery. Power will go out but you might not lose phone/internet and then you can go on line judiciously and watch wunderground.com and follow the progress of the storm. That happened during Emily.

Juice up your cellphone and put some money in it. If the towers don't topple and the phone lines do, this could come in handy.

CASH--plenty of it. We had nearly $2000 US in cash before Wilma which seemed excessive to me. But we used every bit of it paying for repairs after the storm that had to be done to guarantee the safety of our house and things like our generator. (We completely lost our very large front gate, for example. And the banks didn't open for 10 days. That one really suprised me.

Gasoline--gas up your car and put it somewhere where telephone poles and trees are unlikely to fall on it and where it is unlikely to flood.

Consider purchasing a generator. We went through two lesser storms with 4 and 5 days of power outtage without a generator but finally spent the $1000 US to get a good one from the Honda dealership here a few weeks before Emily. We're really really glad we spent that money. We only ran it about 4-6 hours a day but that was enough so we could cook dinner at night and hang around a bit and also keep food in the fridge or freezer somewhat cold. It made all the difference. However, if you have a generator, also invest in minimum 2 preferable 4 of those larger gas containers. Gas was rationed for 10 days or more after Wilma and you had to wait in line for hours every day just to get a very small amount and if you didn't have a car or other motorized vehicle, they would give you no gas. (Our car broke right before Wilma and we couldn't get gas. Came within 2 gallons of running out before the electric came back.)

A rubber mallet best or hammer at the least to get you out of the house if your wood doors swell during the storm.

Floor whisks for pushing out water and buckets for catching leaks. Rain gets in just about anywhere when it's blowing that hard.

Don't feed your animals for 12 or more hours before the storm is to hit and severely limit water as well.

if possible pick a spot to weather the storm which can be easily opened up for a short time if the eye passes over. That way you can let your animals out during that period.

Candles work well instead of flashlights if you're in a large enough space that the candlelight doesn't make the room too hot. I would advise bringiing them from the states. The ones they sell here are inferior. They gutter and bend. They MELT and distend. It's kind of bizarre. Matches or a charcoal lighter too, of course and some candle holders are an awfully good thing to have.

Fill numerous large buckets with tap water and leave in the shower for use rinsing dishes and flushing the toilet.

If you can, fill your freezer and fridge with water jugs prior to the storm to freeze them. This will act as a heat sink and keep the food cold in your fridge.

A rubber hose for siphoning fuel out of your car to run the generator.

I second Mark's comment about plugging the anchor holes, also. If they are threaded, you'll really want to protect the threads against corrosion. Maybe a little grease and a bolt would be the best thing.

PS great idea about the checklist, especially as June approaches...

I also filled my washing machine with water and the bath tub....cut your trees way back, it saved ours.

Hurricane Preparation List
2-3 days before:
? Fill gas in car and/or moto
? Fill tank of gas for the house, have a backup filled too
? Fill cistern
? Buy canned food, milk, eggs, candles, matches, batteries, bleach, pet food, toiletries, ice

1-2 days before
? Clean garden, patio and porch. Cut grass
? Secure all outdoor furniture and plants
? Trim branches and cut down coconuts, oranges, limes, etc (they are potential flying objects)
? Secure young plants and trees
? Put wood or hurricane shuttlers on Windows
? Put masking tape on expones Windows
? Secure tinaco on roof with rope and take the top off (if cement?yes, they Hill fly off)
? Wash clothes
? Fill buckets, pots and bottles with tap water
? Cook the food that won?t last without refrigeration
? Buy plenty of purified water
? Buy cell phone credit
? Charge all rechargeable batteries

Day of Storm
? Charge cell phones
? Clean house and porch of dust and potencial flying objects
? Fill bathtub
? Fill tinaco and cistern again
? Close and secure all Windows, leaving a few open for air passage?
? Get out all candles, flashlights, matches or lighters, emergency radio (we heard all reports from chetumal during all of Wilma)
? Buy more ice and fill icechests
? Raise the temp of the fridge so all is as cold as possible
? Move furniture from areas that can get wet
? Check on neighbors to see if needing help
? Desconnect computer (and make back-up of HD) and other electrical appliances

 

Energy bars (enough for several days), maybe even chocolate

Non-perishable foodstuffs, preferably that can be eaten out of the can/jar

Water (enough for you and for any animals for several days)

Medications (you and animals)

Personal hygiene items (and for animals - disposable litter trays, paper to rip up if you dog would use it in an emergency)

Batteries for lamps, radios, etc

A basic tool kit

A good knife combo (leatherman, swiss army type)

Wind up radio, wind-uplight

Shortwave radio

At least one good book, or trashy magazine

Fire extinguisher

Make sure important documents, passports, etc. are in a safe place and that you could get to them immediately, if need be and you had to run

Carriers for small animals

A change of clothes, and comfortable shoes,

Blankets

A first-aid kit

Some money (in small denominations)

Paper and pencils (better than pens which may run out or dry out over time)

Check with elderly or sick neighbours that they are ok and have supplies too

Bug spray (my mania)

It's probably best if you can keep as many of these things as practical in one place, in a "grab bag", preferably, or a shopping car, for example, that you keep maintained and stocked, so that you can leave in as short a time as possible, should you have to.

Stay calm. You are in a house built of ROCK reinforced with rebar. You're not going to die. They don't have storm surge here. The channel is very deep so waves don't have a chance to get a looong looong momentum going before they build up and hit shore as is the case with so much of the US Gulf coast and parts of Florida.

But you will be tired afterwards and you will be living in camping conditions for awhile after the storm so prepare yourself mentally for that.

All told it's better to be here during the storm if you have a house than away from the island provided you're prepared. That way you can make the repairs that need to be made right away or do makeshift kludges. If you are off island, it could be a week or more before you can get back.