My favorite tropical season is almost here! Hurricane Season! The Atlantic Hurricane Season is almost upon us, running from June 1st-November 30Th. As with each new holiday, decorations will go up in my house, and hurricane season is no exception. I’ve traded out my Easter decorations for hurricane decor. Our decorations include extra cases of water, freshened supply kits, (and for fun) a tracking map for my kids. No worries if you don’t have decorations yet, I am here to help you get ready!
Time to make a plan!
Before you gather your decorations (aka supplies), you need to make a family emergency management plan. For right now you can focus on hurricanes, though making an overall plan that will fit most emergency situations for your family is a great idea! Your family hurricane plan should be simple and should answer the main question – “What do we do if a hurricane is going to have impact on our area/home?” Make sure communication and supply information are included in your plan, and it wouldn’t hurt to have evacuation plans as well. Thinking ahead of time about which routes you would take can help clear your mind for other thoughts in the event of an emergency. FEMA has a great website with printable plans that you can shape to fit your family. You can find them here.
72 hour kit…
Once you have your plan made, you can focus on what supplies you need to complete your 72 hour kit. Your kit should contain enough food, water, and cover other needs (medicine) for everyone in your family (don’t forget your pets) for approximately three days. I personally like to have mine in backpacks, if we have to evacuate quickly we can slip on our backpacks and be on our way (My hubby and I carry the littles’ backpacks, but my older kids can carry their own).
Here are some additional things you may find useful for your 72 hour kits. (If you have other things you have found have been an awesome addition to your 72 hour kit, please share!) :
- Sunscreen
- A pair or two of socks
- Closed toe shoes (sneakers/work boots are my preferred shoe for this)
- A deck or two of playing cards
- Chocolate/sweet treat
- A first aid kit.
So I want you to make a plan, gather a bunch of supplies and it has to be for everyone in your family…are you overwhelmed yet?! Its normal to feel overwhelmed when planning and preparing for something such as a hurricane. I have found getting my family involved helps me feel less overwhelmed. When we work together to plan and prepare everyone is on board and has a sense of ownership of the family plan.
Have Fun!
Make hurricane season fun! Hurricanes are serious stuff, but having a little fun while learning and preparing makes it a bit easier to handle. Some ways we make it fun are to track all named storms. To do this I buy a large paper map and tack it to the wall in our family room when a storm forms we take a marker (we pick a different color for each storm) and we plot the storm’s path as it moves, the size of each dot we plot coordinates with how much strength the storm has gained or lost along its path.
I also let each child pick something special to put in their 72 hour kit. In the event we need to use our kits I also have something special in mine (Bubbles and glow sticks). Last year we had water bottle flipping contests at the end of hurricane season with our extra water supply. We experimented with different levels of water in each bottle to determine how much water should be in a bottle to land the perfect flip most of the time. What fun are you going to put into your hurricane season?
I hope you enjoy this season as much as I do, that you find it exciting and a bit of fun! Please share the ways you are planning, preparing, and creating fun below! If you have questions about how to plan or prepare please ask below as well. I am here to help you and to make it as fun as possible!
