Preparing for Hurricane season... What to stock?

[mum2hba]

Welcome to hurricane land.

Water: I have a couple cases of water, as well as juice containers that I have cleaned, filled with water and frozen. It serves a double purpose. If we loose power they will help the freezer stay cool, and we will have drinking water. I also like to have some of the single crystal light packages. After a while plain water gets really boring.

Food: we have a propane camping stove, with plenty of propane. I like to have a good stash of canned veggies and canned fruit. I always keep a couple loaves of bread in the freezer. Peanut butter and crackers are a good staple to have on hand.
We have a small cooler that we use for cold stuff, so that we don't have to open the frig or freezer. We try to open the frig/freezer as rarely as possible to keep it cold for as long as possible.

Since it is the beginning of the season, places like Home Depot and Lowes usually have some stock up sales on things like weather radios. Don't wait until the last minute to stock up-the stores will be cleaned out.

We keep a couple 5 gallons containers of gas in the garage. It gets rotated out because dh uses it to fill up the mower.

Something to think about is if you will want to put anything on the windows. There are lots of options, so carefully consider what you want to do now. We put up plywood if it looks like the hurricane is going to be a bad one.

Shortly before a storm hits get some cash. If there is no power you won't be able to use credit/debit to purchase anything you need, if you can even find a store that is open.

I have lived with hurricanes all my life. I have ridden out several including Ivan which was pretty scary and resulted in having no power for a week not a fun time.

[carisal]

evaporated milk.... even if you have some milk in the freezer in the beginning, it won't last a week without power. Its also easier to store since it's smaller(for the quantity you can get from it)...


definitely have some bread in the freezer because at the first sign of a hurricane, etc coming you won't be able to find any on the shelves!! I'm sure you have a pretty good idea of good foods to keep - tuna, PB, jelly, canned fruit. also a good idea to have any types of first aid and meds on hand, as well as an extended supply of any prescriptions your family needs.... make sure you have a manual (not just an electric) can opened in order to open canned goods. Have a couple of flashlights and some candles....

eta ~ maybe some heavy work gloves and boots for getting out after the storm, you dont know what type of debris will be out there. if you really want to be prepared might want to get a chainsaw in case you need to clear fallen trees from the roadway to get around.

[amystutts]

We were without power in south MS for 3 weeks after Katrina. We were lucky that our inlaws had an RV that they plugged the deep freezer to, saving all inside. Be sure that if you have a gas grill that you have a full tank of fuel or two because I found out that you can cook almost anything on it especially if it has a cooking "eye" on the side! We did get worried about not having enough gasoline for chain saws and tractors which we used daily for weeks.

For almost 6 weeks after the storm, the grocery stores were low or out of a lot of stuff. Meat, coffee(!), all items that came to us through New Orleans ports were just not there! Think 6-8 weeks out on everything. Always get your prescriptions filled too.