# 7347
Today is day 7 of Hurricane Preparedness Week, but as the folks living in Oklahoma City can tell you after last night’s round by tornadoes, you don’t have to live within reach of one of these tropical storm systems to find yourselves dealing with severe, life-threatening weather conditions.
So while we talk about Hurricane Preparedness this week, everyone should take this yearly reminder to beef up their individual, family, and business emergency plans.
Yesterday and today, Hurricane Preparedness Week has focused on Getting Ready, and Taking Action. So first, a pair of short videos from NOAA on both of these tasks.
Ready.gov has an extensive Hurricane preparedness website, with information on what to do before, during, and after the storm.
Far too many people mistakenly believe they’ve seen the worst that a hurricane can deliver because they’ve been on the periphery of one of the large storms we’ve seen over the past 20 years.
The truth is, we’ve not had a Category 5 storm strike the U.S. mainland since 1992, when Andrew took out a large portion of Homestead, Florida.
Before that you have to go back to 1969, and Hurricane Camille in Mississippi.
The modern benchmark for hurricane disasters is Hurricane Katrina, that devastated New Orleans in 2005. But that storm was barely a Category 3 storm when it hit land.
As horrific as it was, it could have been worse. . .
The lessons of Katrina, Wilma, Ike, Irene and Sandy are that it doesn’t take a category 5 storm to cause major devastation, disruptions, and deaths. Even tropical storms – such as Allison in 2001 – can prove deadly (55 fatalities, $9 billion in damage).
While the storm may last 12 to 24 hours, the aftermath – where power may be out, businesses may be closed, and services may curtailed - can drag on for weeks.
Basic Preps: Emergency Weather Radio, First Aid Kit, Battery Lantern, Water storage
Which makes the `standard advice’ of having at least 3 days worth of supplies less than ideal. Today, most emergency officials recommend you prepare for `at least a week’ (see When 72 Hours Isn’t Enough).
While having food, water, and prescription medicines to last a week or more is vital, sometimes your best option is to get get out of harm’s way.
The following photo taken in Crystal Beach after Hurricane Ike in 2008 proves that staying home in the face of a flood, a hurricane, or other natural disaster can have deadly consequences.
If you live in an evacuation zone, you should obviously be prepared to leave immediately when ordered, but everyone should have a bug-out bag they can grab in the event they must quickly abandon their home (see When Evacuation Is The Better Part Of Valor).
My Bug-out-bag, Canteen, & Toiletry kit
Another important aspect of preparedness for millions of families is anticipating the disaster needs of the non-human members of the family (see Prepping For Pets).
We don’t know where, or even if, a hurricane will make landfall this year. But last month we saw that NOAA predicts active 2013 Atlantic hurricane season.
If you haven’t already downloaded the updated Tropical Cyclone Preparedness Guide, now would be an excellent time to do so.
All this week we’ve focused on hurricane preparedness, but you’ll find dozens of other preparedness articles in the blog by searching this link.
And if you missed any of my earlier blogs this week on hurricane preparedness, you can visit them at the links below:
Grady Norton: The First Hurricane Forecaster
Hurricane Preparedness Week: Inland Flooding
