Every year many communities across the USA are afflicted by the effects of extreme weather such as hurricanes, typhoons, excessive snowfall, flooding and so on. As a homeowner, significant damage to your property bought with your hard-earned dollars from extreme weather activity can be devastating and feel like a real dagger to the heart.
We have come up with some tips and steps homeowners across the nation can take to limit damage to their property from extreme weather events.
Why Building a Hurricane Preparedness Kit is Important
Hurricanes are often on the news for the devastation they cause in the U.S. They can be responsible not only for damage to properties but also deaths, homelessness, unemployment, and tipping lots of local people into poverty and hardship.
What Items You Will Definitely Need in Your Hurricane Preparedness Kit
- Here are some critical items you need have in your hurricane preparedness kit:
- A three-day supply of drinking water
- A three-day supply of non-perishable foods such as cans of tuna, instant soup, and vegetables to name a few examples
- A can opener
- A NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather radio to keep yourself updated on weather developments and so you know what to expect
- Portable USB chargers for cell phones
- A first aid kit
- A flashlight
- Spare batteries
- Maps of the local area
- Personal hygiene items such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer, liquid soap and so on.
To find out more about how you can build a hurricane preparedness kit and stay hydrated during a hurricane, check out DripDrop ORS’s blog post on the subject.
A Basement is One of the Safest Places You Can Be During a Hurricane or Extreme Weather
If you live in an area affected every year by hurricanes, flooding, and extreme weather it is a good idea to build yourself a basement. If your home is not at immediate risk of flooding, the safest place you can be during a hurricane is in the basement of your home. Being in the basement rather than in any of the rest of the internal part of the house protects you and your close ones from being struck by any flying objects, debris, or broken glass. Be sure to bring your hurricane preparedness kit down with you and any necessary supplies you may need. You should also bring your cell phone to the basement should you want to try to contact anyone or the authorities at any point.
Things You Can Do to Protect Your Home from Being Damaged by Flooding
If your home is an area that is regularly affected by hurricanes and heavy rainfall, we suggest taking steps to ensure you limit the extent of the damage caused to your home by flooding. You can also read more here, so as to learn what to do should your home flood.
Here are some of the measures you can take to protect your home from being damaged by flood water:
- Raise the electrical sockets higher
- Replace wooden window frames with UPVC frames
- Put in temporary seals for doors
- Fit one-way valves on toilets and drainage pipes to prevent sewage backing up and rising during a flood
- Choose ceramic or stone tiles over laminate or wood flooring materials
Build Your Home from Resilient Construction Materials So It Will Withstand Strong Winds and Hurricanes
Homes built from concrete are much more capable of withstanding strong winds than those built using wood panelling or bricks.
Steel is another highly resistant material able to withstand the strong winds and rains that come with extreme weather. Steel roofs are a wise choice for homes situated in hurricane-prone areas. Metal roofs are able to withstand very strong winds and don’t tend to get blown off like traditional asphalt roofs do. Although it is hard to really 100% guarantee that a roof is totally hurricane proof and will never be damaged or blow off during a hurricane.
Prepare For Extreme Weather by Keeping in Touch with Weather Updates Regularly
Timing is often everything when it comes to preparing your home for an extreme weather event such as a hurricane, a typhoon, or a flood. Keep in touch with local weather alerts and forecasts so that you know what weather to expect and how you can best prepare your property, so it experiences as little damage as possible. You can keep in touch with the weather updates by weather apps, the news and weather forecasts on the television, and updates on the radio.
In addition, protect your vehicles by taking them off your drive and parking them in a garage or a secure multi-story car park facility. You should also make sure your pets are safe and secure you put them in the basement and provide them with enough space and access to regular food and water.
Limiting the cost of the damages to your property from extreme weather is certainly a tough task. The most important thing is that you and your loved ones manage remain safe and well out of harm’s way during extreme weather.
