This list is the working document behind the hurricane preparation playbook . The 72-hour list is the minimum for any household; the hurricane list is what gets a household through the two-week window inland recovery often takes. Tick what you have, save your progress, and print a copy for the inside of a closet door. The list is saved in your browser only — nothing is uploaded.
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Decide stay or go — and decide it by Day 3 of a warning The decision gets harder the longer you wait. If you're in an evacuation zone or a mobile home, the answer is go. Pre-deciding spares you the worst version of the question at midnight. Print two evacuation routes on paper — primary and inland fallback Phones lose signal. Roads close. An atlas does not require a network. Mark the gas stations and rest stops you'd actually stop at. 1 gallon of drinking water per person per day, 14 days A family of four needs 56 gallons. Buy it early — store shelves clear within 24 hours of a warning. Round up for pets and hot weather. 14 gal/person A bathtub or two large containers filled before landfall This is utility water — flushing toilets, washing — not drinking water. Mains pressure drops within hours of an outage. A way to purify additional water Sawyer Squeeze, a Berkey-style filter, unscented bleach, or the ability to bring water to a rolling boil for one minute. Boil-water orders are the default after a major storm. 14 days of food per person, no cooking required Shelf-stable foods you actually eat: peanut butter, rice, canned beans, oatmeal, tuna, jerky, nuts, dried fruit. Add some 'morale food' — chocolate, coffee, comfort items. ~2,000 cal/day A manual can opener The single most-forgotten item in every kit. A $4 piece of metal you will be glad you bought. A camp stove or grill with fuel, used outside only Cooked food is morale. A propane camp stove and two full canisters covers two weeks of hot meals. Never use indoors — carbon monoxide kills. Headlamps with fresh batteries, one per person Hands-free is the rule. Headlamps beat handhelds in the dark, and a kit of AAA/AA batteries goes further than you think when everything in your house wants one. Two 20,000+ mAh battery banks, charged Each bank holds roughly four phone charges. With two banks per adult, you have a week of comms even without a power station. A portable power station, charged — or a generator with fuel A 1,000Wh power station runs a CPAP overnight, charges everything, and runs a fan. A generator does more but requires fuel storage, outdoor placement, and CO-aware use. Pick one and learn it. 10 gallons of fresh gasoline with stabilizer (if you have a generator) Gas pumps fail with the grid. Stabilizer keeps fuel usable for ~12 months. Rotate it into your car twice a year so it never goes stale. A NOAA weather radio, hand-crank or battery Cell towers fail in landfall conditions. NOAA broadcasts on dedicated VHF frequencies that come through when nothing else does. 14 days of every prescription medication in the household Refill the moment a watch is issued. Pharmacies close, supply chains slow, and 'I'll get it Monday' is the gap that turns inconvenience into emergency. A real first-aid kit — not the gas-station version Trauma gauze, an Israeli bandage, a tourniquet, the meds your household uses, antibiotic ointment, ibuprofen, the band-aid kit. Storm injuries skew toward lacerations and falls. Insect repellent and standing-water awareness Mosquito populations explode in the week after a storm. Standing water in yards and gutters is the breeding ground. DEET-based repellent is the most effective. Two cell phones on two different carriers, if possible Different carriers come back at different times after a storm. One Verizon and one AT&T in the household is real redundancy, not consumer indulgence. A written list of every important phone number, on paper When your phone is dead or destroyed, you cannot call anyone whose number you only know through contacts. Family, insurance, doctor, employer. An out-of-state contact who knows your plan Local circuits get overloaded; long-distance calls and texts often go through when local ones don't. Pick a relative outside the storm region as the family's check-in node. IDs, insurance policies, deed/lease, prescriptions list — in a waterproof bag Freezer bag is fine. The bag travels with you whether you stay or evacuate. Add the photos of your house's contents (see d3). $200–$500 in small bills, in the waterproof bag ATMs and card readers fail with the power. Twenties and tens, not hundreds. Gas stations and small stores will take cash long before they take cards. Photos of every room in the house, dated within the last month Open closets, sweep the camera across every room. This is insurance documentation. You will not remember to do it on landfall day and the photos are the difference between a paid claim and a fight. A USB drive in the waterproof bag with scanned copies of everything Belt-and-suspenders for d1. Encrypted if you can. Insurance adjusters will accept scanned copies when the originals are wet. Plywood or storm panels for exposed windows (coastal exposure) Tape does not hold glass together. Pre-cut plywood with pre-drilled holes is the lowest-skill option. Storm panels are the higher-investment option. Sandbags or flood barriers at vulnerable openings (low-lying property) Hardware stores stock sandbags in season. Many counties offer free sand and bags at warning time. Position them at garage doors and any below-grade entrances. Outdoor furniture, grills, planters — secured or stored before landfall Whatever you don't bring in is going to hit someone's house. Trampolines and patio umbrellas are projectiles in 80 mph winds. An interior shelter room identified — no windows, lowest floor Hallway, closet, or interior bathroom. Bring a mattress for overhead protection if the room loses its ceiling. Evacuation go-bag staged at the door (if evacuating is plausible) Three days of clothes per person, the waterproof document bag, water and snacks, medications, phone chargers, a flashlight. Pet supplies if relevant. Full fuel tank in every vehicle, 5 days before forecast landfall Pumps lose power inland and lines start within 48 hours of a watch. A topped-off tank is also your evacuation insurance — most evacuations are well under 300 miles. Photograph all damage before cleanup, post-storm Insurance claims live and die on dated photos taken before you've touched anything. Date-stamped phone photos work — the metadata is in the file. Refuse cash-only, door-to-door storm-repair contractors Storm-chasing scams target the elderly and the distracted. Document, photograph, file the claim, and only hire a licensed contractor with verifiable references. Restock everything you used within 30 days Water, batteries, fuel, propane, prescriptions, the freezer. The next storm is sometimes three weeks later. This is also when you write down what you wish you had — the most honest review of your kit you will ever do.
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