Juli Lewis, director of the Southeastern Credit Union Foundation, offers additional tips to prepare people before a disaster strikes:

  • Decide with family, friends and co-workers on a central place to “check-in.” This could be a physical location, a social media site or one particular person that everyone checks in with.
  • Have multiple evacuation plans
  • Prepare a stationary disaster kit as well as a “pick up and go” disaster kit
  • Include in your kit things to keep your kids (and furbabies) occupied if they have to be cooped up for a while.
  • A garage door is often the most susceptible to wind (and once it blows up or off, the rest of the house follows). Block the inside and outside of the garage door as much as possible buy using your cars, sandbags, etc.
  • If you have outdoor animals (horses, goats, cows, etc), paint your phone # on them. If the fence gets destroyed and they are displaced, other people will know who to call to get them safely back home.
  • Take the time to take an extensive home inventory list. Take pictures of the “big ticket” items but also open drawers and closets and take pictures and make lists. If you have to make an insurance claim, they will want to know every detail, down to how many pairs of socks and how many potholders you had.
  • Hard to find bottled water? Fill up your bathtub. Fill up sports bottles and put in the refrigerator. Freeze some bottles of water for extra ice.
  • If you have a special needs family member or neighbor, stock up on any special food or supplement (sometimes things like Ensure are hard to find after the storm or stores may be closed).