Hurricane Preparedness

As I sit here researching and writing up guidelines for hurricane preparedness articles that I will post up shortly, I am slowly but most definitely sinking into apprehension quicksand.

There are loads of things that one needs to do 'just in case'. I think because living in South Africa events like hurricanes and tropical storms didn't affect me directly I never really did much research into it. Instead I knew all about self defense, crime prevention and what to do in case of a high jacking.  

I currently reside in Florida. Love-Er-Ly, sunny and let me tell you a Saturday morning spent at the beach-boot camp is a great way to kick off the weekend. Yeah, but did you know that Florida has the highest incidence of hurricanes in the United States?

I live right on the inter-coastal and every morning I wake up to a view of the sunrise on the water.  Yes, I live in an evacuation zone. What this means is that I am highly susceptible to flooding. I need to have all my documents stored in a water-proof crush-proof box. All electrical equipment needs to be elevated off the floor. There goes my computer. I wish I knew this before I bought a tower desktop. A laptop can be stored in a pelican case and kept relatively safe and dry.

Not only do I need to make my apartment storm ready I also need to prepare 3 kits full of all the emergency supplies I may need. I need a kit for the house, the car (in case I am stranded) and one that I may need just in case worst comes to worst and I evacuate to a shelter. All the reading I’ve done so far take careful pains to stress that shelters are not hotels- go prepared.

Prepare, prepare, prepare.

I am frantically writing lists, shopping online and learning storm lingo in an effort to 'be prepared'.