Hurricane Preparedness

Hurricane season starts June 1 and ends November 30 for the Atlantic. The Pacific starts slightly earlier on May 15 and ends November 30th as well.

red cross hurricane app

photo credit: Red Cross

The good thing about hurricanes is that they form slowly and you generally have a few days notice before one hits. As always it is better to prepare ahead of time, before hurricane season starts. There are plenty of places online that offer hurricane preparedness advice and planning. My top two are the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center and the Red Cross.  The Red Cross even has an app to help you plan and prepare for a hurricane along with other natural disasters.

I have the Hurricane app on my phone and it is pretty thorough. It covers all sorts of stuff including setting up alerts and how to make a plan. It even includes packing lists in event of evacuation, including pets and children in your planning. You can even send a text or email to a prearranged list of friends and family members to keep them updated on your status.

red cross hurricane app my life such as it is

In the event you decide to shelter in place and not evacuate or if evacuation is not called for the app will still help you plan for a hurricane and it’s after affects. Depending on the strength and longevity of the storm plus where your house is in relation to the storm (outside edges, dirty side, right smack dab in the middle) can determine how much damage your house will have.  Outside factors also play a role such as if your house is in a flood plain or not.

If evacuating, the app shows where local Red Cross shelters are. It also lets you create an evacuation route and meeting points in the event of separation. Pet friendly hotels are listed if you need one. The “Make a Plan” section lets you customize hurricane shelter in place plan and an evacuation plan. You can assign jobs to different household members and be as detailed as you want. Honestly I did not even think about a Hurricane preparedness plan even when Ike hit us. Lots of discussion with Robert about evacuating or not but we did not have a true plan in place.

There may be other Emergency Preparedness apps out there but I am very pleased with the Red Cross one. The majority of the Red Cross apps are free and available on iOS and Android. If you live in a hurricane zone, I highly recommend you look into downloading the Red Cross app.

Next time I will talk about some simple things you can do around the house prepping for a Hurricane and its aftermath.

signature elizabeth my life such as it is.com

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