Blog > Moving to Florida 5 Things to do and not to do Before a Hurricane
If you’re planning to move to Florida, you’ll definitely want to watch this video to save time, energy and stress before a hurricane. Here are the 5 things to do and 5 things not to do when preparing for a hurricane Watch till the end.
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If you’re thinking about moving to Florida or you want to buy a second home here and you’re a little concerned because of the storms that we get, hurricanes and tropical storms, well this video is for you. Because I’m going to show you 5 things to do and 5 things not to do to prepare for storms before they come
Today we’re going to be talking about 5 things you should do and 5 things you shouldn’t do when preparing for a storm. I thought this was appropriate because we’ve got a storm coming right now as you can see it’s getting a little blustery behind me, we’re starting to get a little bit of wind and we’re expecting things to really kind of get worse as time goes on. Maybe about 12 midnight tonight or one o’clock in the morning tomorrow so we’re just getting prepared so let’s get to it.
5 things you should do and 5 things you shouldn’t do when preparing for a storm.
1. Hoarding (Not to do)
One thing not to do and this is a really big one, is hoarding, you definitely don’t want to hoard. We’re seeing far too many people go to the grocery store and basically clear out all the aisles and not leave any supplies for the folks who can’t make it to the grocery store in time. Maybe some folks work late and need to get some supplies as well. Listen, this is important, we live in a first-world country. This is America and this is not like the apocalypse. I know that the news channels really like to push fear and really what we see is people when they find out that there’s a storm. There is a certain group of people that go to the grocery store and just take up all the paper products and all the food products and all the water products. Before you know it the aisles are cleared and the gas stations are full. The people are going there and filling up 5-gallon jugs and 25-gallon jugs and just taking up all of the resources that we have and it’s just not necessary. I mean we might lose power but it’s only going to be for maybe a day or two and you’re still going to have running water. You can just run your generator. The number one thing not to do is don’t panic and don’t go out and start hoarding everything you need and leave some resources and some supplies for other folks, or else there’s going to be more problems so just think about it. Only take what you need for a few days. Go to the grocery store like you’re filling your groceries in your refrigerator for a week, not for a month, not for two months, none of that stuff you don’t need.
1. Have a generator (To do)
So the number one thing to do and I chose this one because you want to be prepared with supplies is to have a generator. Make sure you’ve got a generator to at least run your refrigerator if the power does go out, you don’t want food to spoil. The good thing here in Sebastian is that we are starting to get underground electrical. I put the Transformer across the street and saw that green box right there so that’s starting to happen all over the Sebastian Highlands. Not everybody’s got that yet but you know that’s going to really circumvent the loss of power for a lot of folks here. That’s the whole idea. It’s a neat little feature. I just wanted you to be aware of this. Number one you want to have a generator, have it ready, have fuel in it, and have some extra cans. Remember don’t hoard but have some extra cans of fuel so you can be prepared if the power does go out. You don’t want your food to spoil and you might want to have a lamp or two on. It’s not going to run your AC unless you’ve got a gigantic generator. There are homes here that have already backup generators installed and that’s something that you can have done is have a backup generator like a propane powered or a diesel-powered backup generator. They’re a little bit pricey but well worth it especially when you have a long power outage. But again, because they’re changing the electrical service to go underground, we’re going to see fewer and fewer of those long power outages.
2. Don’t run that generator inside the house (Not to do)
the house or even inside the garage. It can kill you, it’s an internal combustion motor and it emits carbon dioxide which will steal, rob your body of oxygen and kill you. It’s not a good thing, unfortunately, there have been incidents where people did not know this and they went and put the generator inside the house even with the windows open, even with the muffler pointing outside. It’s just dangerous, it can kill you and it can kill your loved ones and it can kill your pets. Don’t want to do that. It has gas inside of that and gas can explode and we don’t want that to happen obviously. So the best thing to do is leave your generator at least 10 feet away from your home, away from any openings. Make sure you’ve got long enough extension cords to run inside your home, you can put those extension cords through a window or through a sliding door preferably, and then just power your appliances that way but stay safe. Don’t put the generator inside your home. I know it seems like common sense but sometimes you just need to hear this. I hope that if you did not know this, do not put your generator in your house.
2. Remove all of the little items around your home (To do)
The number 2 thing to do when a storm is coming is to remove all of the little items around your home that can become projectiles and of course damage your property or damage other people’s personal property. We certainly don’t want these things flying around you. Even a 40 mile per hour 50 mile per hour wind can pick something up and just wing it at your car or your window and that’s why we have shutters on. Put your shutters up but anything like a watering can and I don’t think that plant’s going anywhere it’s pretty heavy but we’ve got some little potted plants that you’re going to want to put inside. put inside the garage definitely your plastic trash cans. We’ve got some pretty heavy chairs that I don’t know if we’re going to be moving in this storm and then of course you got that wreath behind me that I will put inside. I’m glad I saw that because I would have forgotten about that thing’s back on the back porch that could get lifted up and twirl around and hurt somebody. We don’t want that to happen, so stay safe. Make sure that you remove all the little items laying around and put them away because we don’t want them to become projectiles and hurt somebody or something.
3. Don’t be lazy (Not to do)
Number 3 thing that you should not do when preparing for a storm is be lazy, don’t take the liberty of just you know sort of brushing enough “oh, it’s just a storm, it’s just gonna be a little bit of wind, nothing’s gonna hurt”. That kind of attitude is definitely gonna come back and bite you in the butt. It does for me when I do that, I’m always lazy and I don’t do something that I know I should be doing. Take a little time, put your shutters up if you’ve got them. Do the things that I’m telling you to do. Put away the stuff, don’t just let it sit out there and hope, don’t gamble and remove the risk. I’m not sure if this is true but I did hear from somebody recently that if you have shutters and you don’t put them up and you have property damage they’re going to most likely not honor your claim. I’m not sure if that’s true. I’ll have to double-check that but if that’s the case, that’s huge, that’s a perfect reason not to be lazy. Get your shutters up and be prepared for the storms, don’t be lazy, get up and do something. I think it’s kind of cool or maybe even funny, is that you know when we do have a storm coming it’s pretty amazing to see how many people aren’t being lazy. They’re actually out there really working hard getting things done quickly. So I sort of joke, Man if we think like a storm is coming all the time, imagine the amount of work that we would get done around here? It’s pretty crazy. I mean I’m talking about myself like I get so much done when the storm is coming. It’s crazy I just put a latch on my fence that’s probably been waiting for about a year to do. I did a couple of other things like put a gutter up on the side of my house yesterday or a downspout on the gutter. I’m just knocking them out so I’m just going to start adopting the idea that there’s a storm coming.
3. Cut back your trees from the edge of your roof (To do)
Number three thing that you should do in preparing for a storm is to make sure that you cut back your trees from the edge of your roof or from your gutters. As you can see I’ve just done a little bit of that right here. We have this branch right here that was just kind of hanging over and slamming against that gutter which is not a good thing. It can cause damage, some folks are going to have bigger trees and bigger branches like that monster. Luckily that’s not really hanging over our neighbor’s roof too much. But there are going to be trees like that in your yard and if you can’t get up there and trim that tree yourself, well don’t do that, don’t take the risk of getting on a ladder and hurting yourself. There are people out there that can do it and all you really need to do is just go to Facebook Marketplace we’ve got some local neighborhood Pages like Vero Beach Neighborhood or Sebastian Florida page on Facebook and you can just ask the community who you know that could come and cut my trees or trim my trees off of my roof. You’d be surprised, you get a lot of answers. We also know a lot of folks that we work with. Just give us a call and we can certainly share the names with you. So that’s really important. Make sure you cut back your trees and keep them away from your house so you can avoid damage to your gutters or to your roof.
4. Back feed the generator through the electrical panel (Not to do)
Number four thing that you should absolutely not do, when a storm is coming and we’re talking about generators again, is back feed the generator through the electrical panel. I know if you don’t know anything about it don’t go looking it up and don’t go trying to figure it out because you just shouldn’t do it. It’s very dangerous and it can cause a fire, it can cause death. Basically, that’s taking the generator and I think you plug it into an outlet and then I really don’t even know how to do it either but you plug it into an outlet and then you basically are running the power through your electrical system, and into your appliances through the actual housing wire. I don’t do that, it can cause problems especially if the power from the electrical company comes back in through the power and you don’t have the electrical panel turned off. That’s a major problem, so there’s a remedy for this if you do want to run your generator to your housing wire. You can use a transfer switch, make sure you have a licensed and insured electrician install that for you, and that way you can go ahead and plug in your generator to your house but don’t back feed it in through an outlet in your house, that is a No-No. Stay safe folks
4. Make sure that you are fully supplied with batteries (To do)
The number four thing that you should do when the storm is coming is to make sure that you are fully supplied with batteries because you’re going to need a flashlight. You may need some toys and other things that are battery-operated. Make sure you have plenty of batteries and that you’re not looking around for batteries. This is a short one and again a lot of this stuff is common sense but you know, stock up with batteries. We’ve got a cabinet in our garage and we always have to try to keep all the different types of batteries that we use for our little battery-operated machinery. So make sure you do the same thing.
5. Panic (Not to do)
The number five thing that you should not do when preparing for a storm is panic. I know it can be kind of scary, especially if this is like the first time you’ve gone through something like this and you’re gonna be scared. The thing is just don’t panic. You know, really the worst that happens in storms like this is you might lose some electricity for a little bit, but really there’s nothing to panic about. Everything’s going to be fine, we’re going to go through the storm and the storm’s going to pass and we’re going to get back to our normal lives. Panicking is only really going to make things worse, you know for those of you who have health issues, and added stress panicking isn’t going to do you any good and you know when you panic, the oxygen leaves your brain. Just hold your breath, you’re not breathing properly and when you don’t have oxygen in your brain you can’t think straight, and you’re going to start making more mistakes, you’re going to miss things, you’re going to forget stuff so whatever you need to do, do not panic. One trick you can do is just take big deep breaths, get that oxygen flowing to your brain, sort of loosen your shoulders a little bit, and just think about the things that you have to do to prepare. Stay calm, carry on and get through the storm.
5. Protect your valuables and have some cash on hand (To do)
Last but not least, number five the thing that you should do when preparing for a storm is protecting your valuables and this is going to be sort of a double thing that you should do, is protect your valuables and have some cash on hand. If the power does go out you’re going to want to have the cash to be able to go buy some things at the store because their power might be out as well so it’s always good to have cash on hand. What we like to do is take some of our valuable paperwork that we have put it in plastic baggies, and put those up high. I mean we’re in an area here in Sebastian and it’s not in a flood zone, we don’t expect to get 12 feet, you know, a storm surge over here but let’s say if you live on the water or if you’re over on the island you certainly want to protect your valuables. Put them in some plastic bags, some folks like to put them into little mini safes, waterproof safes, fireproof safes, do that. These would be things like birth certificates, stock certificates and you know anything that can’t be duplicated easily. Make sure that you save those, make sure you have cash and that’s it.
Now you guys have been armed with the 5 things you shouldn’t do and 5 things you should do that top my list during a storm. There are several other things that you should and should not do. I’m not going to be able to get into everything but really what’s most important here is to take a deep breath, and go with the flow.
Also read: 10 Things to Know Before Moving to Sebastian Florida 2022
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