7 Important Hurricane Preparation Steps for Your Family and Home
Florida summers mean sunshine, blue skies, and days at the beach. But it also means the start of hurricane season. And you’ll want hurricane prep to be done before the first hurricane lands. Florida’s hurricane season starts June 1 and ends November 30.
To help, we put together a list of steps you can take to get your family and home ready for a hurricane.
Create an emergency plan
Your family needs to have an emergency plan that includes:
Evacuation routes if you need to leave your home
A communication strategy if your family is separated
A designated safe location or shelter options where you can meet
Emergency contacts to help you stay connected and coordinate an evacuation
A pet plan if you can’t take your pet with you
An evacuation checklist to make packing quick and easy
Stock your home with emergency supplies
You’ll want enough supplies to last your family around 3 days. And these are supplies that you either will use if stuck at home during a hurricane or when you evacuate to a different location.
Supplies you’ll need are:
Non-perishable food items
Bottled water
Extra batteries
Flashlights
First-aid kit
Battery-powered radio
Manuel can opener
Pet food
Prescribed medications
Take pictures of your home
You’ll want to document what your home looked like before a storm hit. Why? Because if your home or roof suffers damage from a storm or hurricane, you can prove that damage wasn’t there before the storm.
Make sure to take pictures of the exterior and interior of your home. And don’t forget to photograph your front yard, back yard, siding, and roof!
You want as many pictures as possible to show your insurance company.
Secure your windows & doors
If the hurricane is coming, there won’t be time to do more than place plywood over your windows and glass doors to protect them from flying debris.
But if you have more time, look at installing hurricane shutters or film over windows and glass doors. And if you can, it’ll be worth the investment to replace your windows with impact-resistant windows. To reinforce your doors, add a deadbolt lock or hurricane-resistant doors.
Trim trees & secure outdoor items
All trees and large bushes or shrubs need to be trimmed away from your home so it doesn’t cause damage during a storm. Also, trim any branches that can fall on your home during strong winds. And remove any dead trees or vegetation to keep these plants from becoming flying debris.
Bring outdoor items inside like furniture, potted plants, or grills. And secure sheds and other outdoor structures to protect them from high winds.
Reinforce your garage door
Garage doors are susceptible to high winds. To reinforce your garage door, install a horizontal brace kit or upgrade to a hurricane-resistant door. This will keep high winds from entering your garage and causing damage.
Have a backup power supply
When the power goes out during a hurricane, flashlights alone may not be enough. Look into getting a generator to provide power during an outage.
If you already have one, test your generator and check that you have enough fuel.
Inspect your roof
Hurricanes mean heavy rains, so you want your roof to be in its best condition to keep water out of your home.
Some ways to prepare your roof for a hurricane are to:
Check for loose, damaged, or missing shingles/tiles
Ensure all areas of your roof are properly sealed
Consider adding hurricane straps or clips
Clean out gutters and downspouts
Have your roof inspected
Read How to Prepare Your Roof for Hurricane Season for more steps you can take to get your roof ready.
Let’s check roof inspection off your hurricane prep list!
Send M3 Roofing a message or call the office – (305) 265-5000 – to set up a roof inspection today!
Our team of roofologists will answer your questions about what you need to do to secure your roof for the next hurricane.
We service homes throughout Miami-Dade and Broward County.