Getting Ready for a Hurricane
Here are some tips on how to get ready for a hurricane or other storms. Generally, these are also good for ice storms. Both of which are common enough in Georgia.
Before the Hurricane:
- Create a safety plan and know your evacuation routes.
- Locate your local emergency shelters.
- Secure your home as best as possible by trimming tree limbs, clearing your gutters, bringing in outside furniture, and boarding up windows.
- For senior adults or those with disabilities, be sure to set up assistance with someone who can help you.
- Be sure you can access emergency alerts if you lose power. Extra batteries, generators, and solar chargers. You may not need a whole house generator, just a fridge, freezer, a few lights, and a backup for cell phones.
- Prepare for potential flooding. If you live in a flood-prone area, don’t forget this.
- Make sure you have an up-to-date list of everything in your home. This is easy to do and can be quite helpful at claim time. Take your cell phone, make a video, and walk slowly through each room in your house. Open drawers, make comments on the contents, open closets, list clothing, tools, everything. Include descriptions. Don’t forget things like rugs, artwork, curtains, collectibles, jewelry, silverware, cameras, and so on. Many of those high-value items will need special insurance to cover their full value. Many people don’t realize that some of their things have true value. I have a plumber client whose wife collects original Shirley Temple memorabilia. He never thought to check the current values, which were tens of thousands more than he expected. A friend collects antiques. To protect his entire collection, it was an additional premium of just $86. Cheap insurance until you need it. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to take some videos of the outside of your house as well.
Be sure to follow the local weather reports. Hurricanes are fickle creatures; they change directions and speed with almost no notice.
Businesses, in addition to the above, need to take further precautions.
At the approach of a hurricane:
• Inspect roof drains and piping. Are they clear of debris and fully functional? Is all roof equipment secured and intact?
• Check floor drains and sumps. Are they clear of debris and fully functional?
• Check all stormwater catch basins and grates to be sure they are clear of debris.
• Be sure that roof flashing is secure.
• Make sure that doors and windows will remain latched. It is important that all building openings are closed and adequately sealed where possible to help limit internal wind influx pressure buildup.
For more safety tips, check out our other blog posts, and email us any questions you have about storm coverage and staying protected from severe weather!
Much of this material comes from our friends at The Hartford and The Travelers.
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