As we have witnessed in the recent weeks the formation of Hurricanes, we can only hope that those who could be potentially effected by its occurrence are well prepared before it hits and make it safely through the storm. By preparing for the storm before it happens, you have a better chance of ensuring that the things you care about are safe.
The first way to prepare yourself is to listen to the news and update yourself with what the storm is going to look like and the direction it is heading in. While you gain a summary of the potential situation you will hear a lot of the following terminology such as: storm watch, storm warning, sustained winds, storm surge and storm tide. It will be beneficial to know the difference between some of these words because they will be used to communicate the conditions of the hurricane.
During the preparation stage, you are also going to want to come up with a family emergency plan. This could include your evacuation techniques that describe which exits to use, where to go if you ever get lost as well as the location of the emergency bags packed with the supplies. It would benefit you to have a case of water, first aid supplies, change of clothes as well as emergency money or anything else you might require.
Lastly, you want to decide if you are going to evacuate your house or stay in place. You should take the potential damage or your home as well as safety concerns for others and yourself into consideration when choosing to stay or not. You should evacuate if your house is not built to sustain this type of weather, if you are issued to by the authorities and if you are located by a potential flood area.
If you have chosen to stay in your place of residence instead of leaving, the next best thing you could do for yourself is to know how to get in contact with authorities and other resources so it would be wise to use chargers that take batteries to charge your devices ahead of time. This will ensure that you are able to, at bare minimum, contact any emergency and non-emergency police departments and local relief organizations in case you need help or have questions. For specifically Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, we have witnessed an increase of people using social media as a way to inform others as well as authorities of their circumstance.
By knowing what support systems you have and knowing the numbers to some of the places that have the ability to help you, you would be doing not only yourself but neighbors as well a favor by being well prepared and informed.
After vicious hurricanes like Harvey and Irma, both once Category 4 Hurricanes, you can expect for damages to occur. During Hurricane Harvey, there was $80 billion- $100 billion dollars’ worth of damages to cover but luckily through a collective donations adding up to $320 million dollars that will help them rebuild. Hurricane Irma is predicted to cost around the same, if not more damage.
However the physical impacts are sometimes easier to swallow then the emotional toll on communities. You still had over 500,000 people got displaced and put in shelters. The impact of these hurricanes can be reduced through preparation techniques such as these listed above and other methods we are just discovering.