Hurricane Preparedness Blog

Rabbit ears are today’s lucky addition to your hurricane kit (so hop to it).

Television is an important medium to receive your local hurricane forecast, shelter information, road closures and other important emergency management information. However, most televisions today get their signal from cable or satellite providers, not from a VHF television antenna. If the cable goes out before your power does, your TV is no good - even if you have a generator.

Unless, that is, you add a good old-fashioned TV antenna to your hurricane kit! On a trip to Radio Shack last night to purchase transistors for my time machine, I saw the pictured antenna for $6 plus tax. I’m keeping it in my closet with the rest of my hurricane supplies just in case.

Of course, the $25 antenna will fare better than the $6 one, but for about the cost of a pack of batteries, why not add this gem to your hurricane kit?

When hurricanes knock out power, we quickly become a cash society.

Most ATMs and credit cards will be useless, leaving you with only cash to pay for needed supplies.

At OneStorm, we’ve gone back and forth many times about whether or not to add “Cash” to our preparedness checklists. Currently, we do not. We believe that it is unreasonable to ask someone to hide an envelope of cash in June - and then there’s the question of “how much.”

Rather, we recommend that you withdraw cash from an ATM as soon as your home is in the 5-day cone of a storm. Hold onto it until the storm has passed and you’re confident that you won’t need it.

With Tropical Storm Erin threatening Texas right now, and an uncertain future for Tropical Storm Dean, it may be time for many of you to make that ATM run. Remember, even before the power goes out, a panicked community will empty those machines out fast!

With the movement to cordless and cellular telephones, fewer and fewer homes remain equipped with this hurricane kit essential - a corded telephone. How many phones in your house plug into both the telephone jack AND into a power outlet? If it’s cordless, has an answering machine, caller ID or any other feature beyond making and receiving calls, chances are it uses a power outlet or batties. Now, why is this a problem?

If (or shall we say when) you inevitably lose power during a hurricane, most powered telephones won’t function at all - period. Try it. Unplug it’s power cord and try making a call. What happened? If you have dial tone, let me know where to find one of those!

Am I suggesting to go out and buy an old-fashioned telephone (if you can find one)? Not necessarily. If you’re anything like me, your phone from 10 years ago is in the attic or basement somewhere… and it still works like a charm. Dig it out and add it to your hurricane kit! When the weather begins turning for the worse, plug it in to the jack that’s closest to your safe room.

Additionally, if you pick up an extra long phone cord on your next trip to the store (only a couple dollars), you’ll be able to move that phone more easily around the house. Keep it near you at all times, along with a list of important phone numbers.

Lastly, do not make unnecessary calls from any type of phone during an emergency. Keep the lines free for those who need them most.

Until we’ve created a culture of preparedness in our communities, individual planning must rest in part with the government. -Moi

Terry Ebbert, New Orleans head of homeland security says that “Responsibility for individual planning rests not with government but with individuals.” While that sounds peachy in theory, the latest statistics from a Harvard School of Public Health study present a reality that government officias can’t ignore - people will need your help, and blaming them for not preparing themselves will never look good on camera.

• Nearly one-third of residents in U.S. coastal areas vulnerable to hurricanes say they won’t obey orders to evacuate if a major storm threatens, according to a new survey on preparedness released today.
• In a survey last year, only one-fourth of hurricane-zone residents said they would not evacuate.
• Almost two-thirds of New Orleans residents don’t know the location of an evacuation shelter.
• More than half have not prearranged with their family where to meet after a storm.
• More than half who don’t evacuate fear overcrowded roads.
• One-third fear danger during evacuation and theft or damage of property left behind.
• Two-thirds of respondents think shelters would be unsanitary, too crowded and short of water.
• Among those reluctant to leave, three-quarters say their houses are sturdy enough to withstand hurricanes.
• New Orleans leads in one positive category: It boasts the fewest number of respondents who say they would refuse to evacuate, only 14%.

Every day that goes by without a hurricane, it becomes harder and harder to convince people to prepare. This isn’t to say that I’m wishing for one, it’s saying that short-term memory sucks. 1/3 of people won’t evacuate 1-year post-Katrina, 1/4 won’t evacuate 2-years post-Katrina.

How prepared is your family today? August is just 8 days away. Get crackin.