Hurricanes Happen and You Need to Be Prepared

Living in Florida for ten years taught me to be ready for hurricanes and never underestimate Mother Nature. Most often when they say the hurricane was going to be the worst, they ended up being nothing more than bad thunderstorms. However on many occasions, these hurricanes did hold true to the forecasters predictions and end up devastating and slamming into the coast. Living in New Port Richey Florida just about 25 miles from Tampa on the Gulf of Mexico when violent storms would come in the area we would experience extreme flooding right away. This had to do with where it was centered at in Florida. Being up the coastline and away from the major inlets made for flooding occurrences to happen regularly. Not to mention many of the homes in this area were on canals, so the water table was already extremely high to ground level. When hurricanes come in being prepared is extremely important so that you do not put your life or anyone else in danger. Removing objects from your yard that can fly around becoming deadly projectiles is just as important as boarding up your windows and making sure you have emergency supplies on hand.

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During one year Florida was hit with four hurricanes pretty much back to back over a 30 day period. During this time I was working at an ACLF home and was required by law to stay at the facility. This meant that I could leave or go anywhere. I couldn't anyhow as the roads were shut down and the weather made it undrivable. The rain was coming down in buckets, and the lightning took the power out within a matter of minutes it seemed. For the next 30 days, the facility ran on emergency generators and emergency supplies that were kept in a specific storage room. With 18 residents having emergency supplies on hand to provide three meals a day was crucial. When the power was restored, and everything got back to normal the entire emergency supply of food rations and emergency water rations had been nearly completely depleted. If not for having such an extreme amount of emergency supplies for hurricane season on hand as suggested this facility could have experienced a catastrophe.

 

I totally agree. Living in Florida myself, and other states up the East Coast, you never know what will happen. But in the areas that hurricanes visit often, you definitely have to be prepared. And I don't mean wait until they say evacuate either. The good thing is that the news is very good about updating people almost by the minute on natural disasters, even if it is a tropical storm because it can easily turn into something else while out in the water or if it gains momentum when it hits land. We just had a tropical storm over the weekend, luckily just strong winds and rain. But the season is just starting and we have about 5 months to go. We usually have about 2-3 weeks of supplies and even had a generator at one point, but now it's time to throw away/restock/replenish and make sure we have everything needed for the "just in case" moment.

 

I hail from the tropics and the worst that can happen here is a windstorm. The worst that can result is roofs being blown away followed by torrential rains which mow down big trees. So I imagine a hurricane to be pretty much intimidating. I guess that if a hurricane strikes, it would be expedient to take refuge in the middle floors of a tall building or, is it? It would need one to have a backpack of supplies in readiness for the inevitable.

 

We don't have hurricanes from where I live, but we have typhoons during a large part of the year, in the rainy seasons from as early as May until December. The main problem here is floods, sometimes landslides in the mountainous regions, as well as the destruction of crops and death of farm animals in the lowlands. There are tons of things that are ruined, and the economy often gets damaged because the Philippines is mostly a farming and fishing country, and most of the resources are taken from the land, and not high tech such as the creation of cars and computers. It's a third world country for a reason, and monthly (or even every two weeks) storms that can uproot trees is a real problem here.

 

This is so true. Having lived in Jamaica for most of my life I did not experience a lot of hurricanes. I experienced 2 to be exact. Every year we heard about developing hurricanes but they never affected us, however when hurricane Ivan was pretty close my family started to prepare. We were right on time as it did a lot of major damages and the majority of Jamaicans were unprepared as we had a tendency to believe that hurricanes would not affect us.

 

I live in Jamaica, which is considered to be in a hurricane prone zone. In earlier times, the people here would give scant regards to hurricane warnings because most of the times we would be spared from a direct hit. However, in the late 1980s we were hit by Hurricane Gilbert which resulted in a great amount of devastation to the infrastucture. Because of that event, people are more inclined to be prepared whenever there is a hurricane warning.

 

Yes It's advised to be always ready for hurricans especially when you live in a low laying area, so for you to be ready gou need some safety tips like Always to pay attention to the local reports about weather, you can use television, Radio, Or internet to know what if the hurricane is closer to happen, and if a warning is issued you need to stay in a safe room, With all basics like foods water, toilet, and all tools you might need to wait until it's over Don't come closer to the window and I read that it's not good to use a phone during Hurricane.

 

If you live in Hurricane country I have a suggestion for you. Buy a medium sized good solid ice chest with a good lock on it. What you do is put this in a closet with your mush have papers and things like pictures and family keepsakes. This is so that if the storm comes right at you and you decide to leave it is all together so you can grab it and go... OR conversely if you stay and shouldn't have this will greatly improve the chances of these things surviving or being returned to you safely even if it gets blown away.

I was raised on the Gulf Coast and still am less than a hundred miles inland so am still effected. I've been through the eye 4 times so far. We always have food, water, battery powered lights and fans and various camping stuff ready.