Prepare Your Home
for Emergencies
As hurricanes Rita and Katrina taught
us in 2005, and Claudette before that,
hurricanes are nothing to take for
granted. They are awesome forces
of nature that have the capacity to
take down what may have taken all
your life to build up: your home.
The prospect of leaving an
unprotected house and being
unprepared for a hurricane of a category 3 or higher is frightening for most people. That’s why it’s a good idea to begin preparations for hurricane season now, while everyone is preparing their vegetable gardens. Supplies will be plentiful and you won’t be doing it under duress.
Last year when hurricane Rita was bearing down on Victoria and Port O’Connor as a category 5 hurricane, my husband was out of the country and I had to haul my children late in the day to San Antonio to pick up what few sheets of plywood were available. We drove back in the dark pulling a trailer full of plywood, and I was wearing sunglasses at nine o’clock at night so I could see past the glare of headlights of people trying to evacuate north.
It was a frantic night I swore I wouldn’t live through again because I would be prepared for hurricanes early the next year, well before the waters off of Africa begin heating up. This is tops on my spring to-do list and I hope it will be on yours, too. While there are many things to consider when you’re preparing for a hurricane, such as having enough food and water, this strictly covers preparing your home and not your personal readiness.
Get hurricane ready
One of the first priorities for preparing your home is boarding up windows. This will keep flying debris from breaking them. You’ll need half inch plywood cut to size. Save time by pre-drilling holes every twelve or so inches. You may even want to paint the plywood and label it with the specific window that it goes on. Be sure to board up any doors that have windows as well.
You may also want to invest in a generator. Sometimes power can be lost for days and weeks and if this happens to you, a generator will be hard to find. It’s a big cost, but it might be worth thinking about making this investment. One investment in the house that’s not as expensive is an old-fashioned telephone. These telephones are the type that don’t require electricity. Every home should have one because you can often make a phone call with one of these even when you can’t with an electric phone. Plus, many times the electricity is down but telephones are still in service. Other household supplies might include large plastic tarps to place over your roof in case you sustain roof damage.
Another crucial step in readying your house for a hurricane is to make sure you don’t have any trees or limbs rubbing against the house. Flapping limbs can lash at siding, roof shingles, and windows and can do damage to the house. When the hurricane is upon you, unplug large appliances and turn off air conditioning units and anything that was left on. By turning these things off, you can help prevent damage from the power surges once electricity returns.
Check your insurance
One of the most difficult things to deal after a catastrophe is finding out you don’t have coverage for it. I know this because when I first graduated from college, I was a claims adjuster and had to tell people who thought they were covered by their policy that they weren’t. Although water is just water for the average homeowner, an insurance company sees fine distinctions between types of water, such as rising water flood, falling water from storm damage or roof leaks, and long-term water damage like that from construction mistakes or improper roofing techniques.
Make sure that you understand your home insurance policy and how it relates to storm damage and water and that you are fully aware of your deductible and limits of your policy. Make it a point to discuss all your coverages with your agent, ask plenty of questions, and take notes. File these notes with your policy. This way, if there’s a discrepancy, you’ll have something to refer to.
Catalog your possessions
Another important back up system includes the documentation of your possessions. You should catalog and photograph the items in your house such as electronics, including make and model numbers, silver, china, or crystal, fine collectibles. If you have to evacuate your home, make sure this document goes with you.
State Farm has a simple, straightforward inventory sheet that would be perfect for this. Download it this free pdf document here http://tinyurl.com/etawb. Another quick shortcut, but not as thorough, is a room by room videotape. This will give a claims adjuster a good feel for the kind of home you lived in and gives you a visual record of your belongings. One website, knowyourstuff.com, operated by the Insurance Information Institute also has some good tips for cataloging the contents of your home.
While it’s always fun to talk about decorating projects and other fun stuff around the house, preparing your home for the upcoming hurricane season is simply good sense and helps you to protect one of your most important assets.
© 2007 Kathryn Weber, all rights reserved
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Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Everydayclean.com Cleaning Calender, that calender that puts you in control of your home by ending the power struggle. For more information log on to http://tinyurl.com/d9rh5.
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©2001-2007 Kathryn Weber
All rights reserved.
