Your life can change in the blink of an eye.
Once you and your family are prepared, consider extended family members or friends who are especially vulnerable during disasters. Pay special attention to folks with financial limitations and seniors.
You can help your broader community before, during, and after disasters by volunteering. Find an organization in your community, and participate in a class, training, or discussion. Affiliate with the organization before disaster strikes.
Local nonprofits, faith-based organizations, schools, and civic groups are all great places to begin your search. There are many ways to help your community, including delivering food to older adults or organizing your own community project. Consider any special skills you may be able to offer.
Get training in CPR and basic first aid, as well as other hazard-specific training. A financial contribution or gift to a recognized nonprofit disaster relief organization is always an effective way to support disaster recovery, and even small amounts can make a big difference.
Here are some options to get you started to support community disaster resilience:
Where will your family or household be when disaster strikes? If you are not together when an emergency happens, will everyone know how to stay in contact — even if cell towers are down and phones don’t work? Do you have a meeting place and will everyone have a way to get there?
To develop a family disaster plan, start by mapping out contact methods and meeting places. Then share and practice your plan with your family or household and out-of-town contact. While you develop your plan, keep in mind these specific household needs:
After you make your plan, all you need to do is revisit and communicate your plan regularly so you’re ready when disaster strikes.
Send links to your disaster plan and make copies for all family or household members and emergency contacts. Post a copy in a prominent place in your home like a bulletin board.
Regularly gather your family or household members to review and practice your plan. Discuss what information you would communicate during a disaster and send practice messages. Make sure all family members (including children) understand how and when to call 911.
Update your communication plan at least once a year or whenever information changes.
A natural disaster is often devastating for adults, but children can be especially vulnerable to stress and anxiety when disaster strikes. Prepare your children before a disaster and plan activities to keep them busy during and after an emergency.
Getting kids involved in the planning process and letting them plan activities will distribute the workload and give your family a sense of control.
Pets are cherished family members, so it’s essential to plan for their safety and comfort as a part of your comprehensive family disaster plan.
Take inventory of your supplies and review all records periodically so your pet can be safe and cared for during any disaster.
Consider these options for your pet’s location during a disaster.
Keep your pet prepared at all times.
Prepare your large animals such as horses, cattle, sheep, goats, or pigs before a disaster using the following tips from FEMA:
Take the extra time to observe livestock, looking for early signs of disease and injury. Severe cold-weather injuries or death primarily occur in the very young or in animals that are already debilitated.
Animals suffering from frostbite don’t exhibit pain. It may be up to two weeks before the injury becomes evident as the damaged tissue starts to slough away. At that point, treat the injury like an open wound, and consult a veterinarian.
Make sure your livestock has the following to help prevent cold-weather problems:
Nearly every home is susceptible to power outages caused by disasters. Some disruptions last for days, even weeks. Electrical power loss can create unhealthy and unsafe living conditions or building damage.
Taking steps to prepare before a power outage is the best way to maintain your family’s comfort and avoid danger, costly losses, or damage to your home. Learning how to protect food, prevent mold growth, safely use generators, prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, and avoid house fires when power returns are all essential parts of your power outage preparedness plan.
Evaluate and secure different backup power options ranging from small backup batteries and solar charging options to portable or standby generators with an automatic switch.
During or after a power outage or disaster, your food may no longer be safe to eat. Take precautions to prevent food spoilage, and know when you should dispose of refrigerated food. Food that has not been refrigerated can spoil quickly and cause severe health problems, so you should take all steps to keep it safe. Here’s how the following steps to extend the shelf life of your refrigerated food:
You can also make your home resilient to power loss by using a combination of power generation options from basic to sophisticated. Then you can provide backup power for lighting, food preservation, limited air conditioning, prevention of mold growth on interior finishes, and much more.
Consult a licensed, professional electrician to evaluate your generator purchase options. Two kinds of generators can generate emergency power in your home: permanently installed standby or “whole house” generators, and temporary, portable generators.
Ensure your generator is properly ventilated. Improperly ventilated generators can cause deadly carbon monoxide fumes to build up. The fumes are odorless and are often fatal.
You can enhance your safety and comfort during and after an emergency or disaster by planning to be self-sufficient. By creating an emergency supply kit, you’ll be able to meet your basic needs for food, water, cash, medicines, and other supplies that will last for at least 72 hours.
Once you build and maintain your disaster supply kit, you have a way to meet your family’s basic needs during a difficult time. This also helps your community by allowing emergency officials and first responders to focus on those who cannot help themselves. Make sure to make your disaster preparedness plan and practice with your family.
Plan for two scenarios when building your disaster supply kit: remaining in your home or evacuating to a safer location.
Store items in airtight plastic bags, and use 1-2 portable containers for your whole kit.
Inventory on-hand supplies, and purchase any additional items. Building and maintaining your kit over time can help offset the cost.
See more about preparing emergency supply kits specifically for people with disabilities.
Remember to replace your stored food and water every six months. Dedicate one area of your cabinet or pantry to non-perishable food like peanut butter and jelly that you continuously replace.
Make your emergency water supply a top priority. Your requirements will vary depending on age, physical condition, activity, diet, and climate.
An active person needs at least two quarts of drinking water daily, so store at least one gallon of water per person per day for a minimum of three days. This amount will provide for drinking, cooking, and sanitary needs.
Children, nursing mothers, and people with health issues will need more. Keep in mind that high temperatures can double the required water amount.
Store your water in thoroughly washed plastic, fiberglass, or enamel-lined containers. Don’t use containers that can break (like glass bottles) and never use a container that has held toxic substances. Plastic containers like soda bottles work, and camping stores offer various containers.
Seal your water containers tightly and label and store them in a cool, dark place. Put a date on each container, and change stored water every six months.
Collect your household documents and create a photographic inventory of your household contents and valuables for an efficient insurance claims process.
Secure your documents in a safe place. Store paper copies in a fireproof and waterproof box or safe at home, in a bank safe deposit box, or with a trusted friend or relative. Keep electronic copies of important documents in a password-protected encrypted format on a removable flash or external hard drive in your fireproof and waterproof box or safe, or use a secure cloud-based service.
Store your disaster supply kit, documentation, and valuables in waterproof containers away from basements or other home locations that may flood.
A disaster can occur when you are at home, work, or traveling. Prepare a kit for your home, work, and all vehicles.
Quickly changing weather and environmental conditions demand careful attention. You can stay safe by staying aware of the latest disaster events in your community in a variety of ways, including those that operate without electric power.
No matter how you receive your updates and alerts, make sure you choose more than one method so you have a backup plan during any emergency.
Purchase a NOAA Weather Radio receiver with backup battery power. NOAA Weather Radio from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a nationwide, 24-hour radio station network that broadcasts continuous weather information like forecasts, watches, warnings and all-hazard updates, such as earthquakes or environmental events like chemical releases or oil spills.
NOAA Weather Radio is commercial-free but requires a specific receiver or scanner that is widely available for as little as $30. You may need an external antenna if you are more than 30 miles from the nearest transmitter.
The nationwide Emergency Alert System can deliver wireless emergency alerts to your devices. In addition to NOAA Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System, you also may be covered by a community-level emergency alerting system.
If your government alerting system uses landline telephones, but you do not have one, you may still be able to connect your mobile devices to Enhanced Telephone Notification systems like Reverse 911© and text messages. Strobe lights, pagers, computers, and text printers can be connected for the visually and hearing-impaired, as well.
Download your state or local emergency management agency app and the FEMA app. Enable text message alerts (message and data rates will apply).
Look for updates from official local government and emergency management agencies and utility providers on their websites and social media to stay current before, during, and after a disaster.
Sign up for listservs and emergency alerts from your workplace, school, houses of worship, or other community organizations that provide notifications during an emergency.
Monitor weather forecasts frequently using apps, devices, government alerting services, radio/television news, and social media. Always keep your cell phone charged and activate location settings that allow weather-related apps to follow and alert you no matter where you go.
No matter how you plan to receive emergency alerts, listen to broadcasts and check online every 30 minutes during emergencies to stay current on the latest updates and essential instructions.
Your house design and shape are critical to handling lateral loads from high-wind events like hurricanes and tornadoes.
A square house has the same load in every direction because its size and sides are uniform. Conversely, a long, narrow house will experience a much larger load on the long sides than on the short sides. Walls parallel to the lateral load must be designed and built to anticipate and handle this loading.
Roof shape affects the way a home handles high winds as well. A hip roof will withstand high winds better than a gable end roof as the gable can act like a sail on a ship and provide a large surface area for the wind to be blown against.
If you are building new or adding to your home, use a hip roof design instead of a gable to benefit from the aerodynamics of the hip shape option. If you already have a gable shape or must use one for design reasons, you can reinforce the gable by bracing it to provide the strength necessary to resist high wind forces.
Your home is more likely to experience damage during a high-wind event if the area immediately around your home has objects that can be moved by the wind. If you have time, safely secure outdoor items or bring them inside (ex: furniture and other outdoor equipment on your patio or deck). Don’t forget trash cans, grills, toys, and potted plants. Keep them from becoming flying objects. Also remove any debris like fallen tree branches.
Downed, falling, and damaged trees account for most major wind-related house damage in hurricanes. More than 30 years ago, Hurricane Andrew toppled 38% of the trees in its path. Hurricane Charley knocked down 10,000 trees in Central Florida in 2004, and Hurricane Katrina’s 120 mph-plus wind speeds took down approximately 20% of urban trees in 2005. In October 2018, Hurricane Michael devastated 26 square miles of the tree canopy, an area equal to the size of Pensacola, Florida, plus four additional square miles. The Hurricane Michael tree losses introduced a multi-year wildfire threat as the downed trees decayed across the affected forests.
Tree damage is a dangerous problem in tornadoes as well. Beyond wind intensity; factors influencing tree damage include:
While you cannot build a home strong enough to withstand the weight and impact of a large tree, you can plan and maintain your landscape to reduce the risk of trees falling on your home. Certain species are more vulnerable to wind damage, such as southern pine, pecan, red oak, and water oak. Species with shorter life spans are more susceptible to storm damage as well.
Consider three factors when evaluating your yard: species, tree health, and location. Place trees far enough from your home that they could fall without causing damage. Maintain the space between your home and any nearby tree to ensure it exceeds the fully grown tree height.
In addition to trees, you should evaluate your hardscape and other elements that might cause damage in high winds. Secure or remove barbeque grills, fences, flag poles, garden decorations, lawn furniture, outdoor lights, and swing sets. Anchor building components, such as gutters, downspouts, and exterior air conditioning or pool equipment.
Check your yard for weakened trees that could fall or lose limbs during high winds. Look for:
Call and text or email a picture to your local home improvement garden center, nursery, or government extension office if you have questions about your trees.
Some tree species are more prone to storm damage. A tree more likely to survive storms is compact, with a low center of gravity; a strong, sturdy trunk; and a deep, symmetrical root system. City foresters, government extension offices, home improvement garden centers, nurseries, and landscape firms can advise on smart tree selection for your area and soil conditions.
Rock and gravel landscaping swiftly become projectiles in high-wind events. Consider replacing these landscaping materials with fire-treated mulch to reduce the risk of damage when severe weather begins.
High wind events like hurricanes and tornadoes as well as fast-moving floodwaters or tsunamis can move or dislodge fuel tanks causing a threat to you, your family, and others. Take action today to keep your fuel tank in place.
In a high-wind event such as a hurricane or tornado, keeping the roof on your home is a top priority as is protecting it from wind-borne debris and hail. A resilient roof system will provide wind-resistance and impact-resistance when it counts the most.
The roof is the primary structural element of the house, transferring the loads that act on the walls facing the wind into the walls that are parallel to the wind. The roof structure includes framing and roof sheathing, which is covered by a roof covering that serves as a barrier to weather and keeps water from entering the structure.
Roof framing can be composed of either rafters cut from dimensional lumber, often called “conventional framing,” or engineered trusses. Either can provide a strong and secure means of framing a roof. Proper design and installation of roof framing is critical, including the connections of any roof elements by a mechanical means such as metal connectors.
The main structural components of the roof assembly include:
The connections between the roof and walls are crucial, including:
Ensure the same strong roof design and connections are made throughout the house, including other areas such as porches, lanais, carports, and breezeways.
When wind forces enter your home, the pressure can build up until it eventually causes the weakest part of your home to rupture. Think of it like blowing up a balloon. Once the internal pressure reaches a certain level, it pops. That is why it is essential to protect all your home’s openings (windows, entry doors, garage doors, skylights, sliding doors, gable end vents, etc.) to keep the wind and pressure out.
When you protect your openings, they can resist impacts from hail or windborne debris like flying missiles, tree limbs, or roofing material that break windows and breach doors and allow pressurization to occur. Protecting your openings and keeping them intact can prevent wind-driven rain and moisture from entering your home as well.
One of the most effective opening protection options is to install impact-resistant windows.
Roof framing is the primary structural element of a roof.
Beneath the asphalt shingles or clay tiles or metal slats of your roof is an intricate structure, not unlike a skeleton. The framing of your roof is a crucial component to your home’s weather resistance, particularly in high-wind events.
As a homeowner, you need to make sure the structure and materials of your roof framing are both sound and secure.
Typically, residential roof framing is with wood rafters or wood trusses. However, there are also all-concrete roof systems available including precast planks, insulating concrete deck forming systems, and conventional concrete forming for increased resiliency of roof structures.
Your roof’s performance during high-wind events requires that the roof-framing members be properly designed and spaced, that there is proper lateral bracing supporting roof framing, and that there are adequate connections between the roof structure and the wall.
The FLASH Resilient Design Guide: High Wind Wood Frame Construction Edition provides the following guidance on resilient roof framing:
Gabled roofs have two sloping sides that come together at a ridge, creating end walls with a triangular extension, called a gable. Gable end walls look like a standing letter “A” at the top as opposed to the more aerodynamic hip-shape roofs that look like a leaning letter “A.”
In nearly every hurricane from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 to Hurricane Michael in 2018, homes with unreinforced gable ends sustained high- wind damage. Often, the damage occurred because the large, flat areas of a gable end wall receive the wind’s full effect as it blows against the home.
Think of the gable end like a sail that meets the wind. When the wind overwhelms the sail, the boat moves. It is critical to reinforce your home’s gable end walls so nothing moves or is displaced when the wind hits it full force.
Gable end walls should be adequately braced and anchored as it is the place where the roof framing, decking, underlayment, and coverings meet. Fortunately, of all the possible structural retrofits for a house, gable-end walls are often the easiest to strengthen.
Three potential failures related to gable-end walls include:
Retrofitting gable ends to brace the walls features two activities.
The first activity is strengthening and bracing the gable end. This retrofit makes the triangular shape end wall stronger by anchoring the wall to the roof and ceiling structure.
The second activity is strengthening the wall-to-wall connection: This activity focuses on connecting the gable end wall to the exterior wall below by connecting the wall below to the reinforced gable-end wall with straps, brackets, or screws between them to make a strong connection. A good connection between a strengthened gable-end wall above and the wall below will help strengthen the lower wall by keeping the top of it from moving, thereby making the home’s whole end wall much stronger and better able to resist wind loads. You will need to determine which kind of connection (straps, brackets, screws, etc.) is appropriate when you evaluate the gable end.
Conclusion: The types of walls and way the walls are connected will determine whether strengthening and bracing the gable end or strengthening the wall-to-wall connection should be done first. If the gable-end wall is a conventionally framed wall and the wall studs are merely toe-nailed in place, then you should install straps or right-angle brackets to anchor each of the studs longer than 3’ to the upper and lower framing members. If you attach the studs to the top and bottom plates using brackets that must be nailed to the top and bottom plates’ edge, they must be installed before the horizontal braces are installed.
Contact a licensed, bonded, and insured contractor to perform end bracing and strengthening retrofits.
Your home’s ability to resist extreme wind forces is only as effective as its weakest link, and the most effective way to create a hurricane-resistant home is to secure all connections starting with the roof-to-wall connection.
The roof is your home’s first line of defense from a storm. To make sure the roof stays in place when severe winds blow, securely anchor roof-to-wall connections by installing metal connectors (hurricane straps or clips) or screws at every wall-to-rafter connection. Keep in mind “hurricane straps” is jargon for the connection that is made between the roof and wall structural members, but this same connection also enhances the structure against other high winds, such as those from tornadoes.
Decades of post-storm damage investigations after hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms reveal that more than 90% of house damage in severe wind events begins when garage doors separate from their mounting, collapse, or cave in due to windborne debris impacts. The doors are vulnerable because they are your home’s largest and weakest openings.
However, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) analysis indicates that strong, reinforced garage doors can serve a vital and protective role in severe winds. NIST found that homes with intact garage doors following a severe wind event are likelier to retain their roofs and the walls adjacent to the garage. The correlation between intact garage doors and undamaged roofs remained effective in windspeeds up to 135 mph.
Determining whether garage doors are wind-rated or impact-resistant can be challenging without proof of compliance labeling (typically a yellow or white sticker listing pounds per square foot or PSF.)
If your door does not have a sticker, contact the manufacturer or a local distributor.
Strengthen your existing garage door
Brace Your Garage Door
You have three basic options for preparing your garage door to withstand high winds.
Design pressure (DP) ratings indicate the maximum amount of positive (pushing) and negative (pulling) pressure that your windows can withstand without breaking during events like hurricanes or tornadoes. Understanding the DP of your windows matters because it can help you evaluate the potential performance of your home in a high wind event. Knowing that your windows have a lower DP may also help make a case for investment in hurricane shutters or newer, impact-resistant windows.
Design Pressure (DP) rating on windows is different from impact-resistance ratings. DP only reflects wind pressure, not impacts from flying missiles or windborne debris that commonly occurs in high-wind events.
Your exterior walls, doors, and garage doors serve as part of the protective shell of your home. If the shell breaks during a hail, hurricane, tornado, or another high-wind event, wind can enter your home and allow pressure to build on the roof and walls, often leading to damage.
Doors are one of the weakest parts of the wall, so they must be designed and installed correctly to keep wind and wind-driven rain out of a home. It is important to determine your door’s potential performance by knowing how much wind load it is designed to carry and evaluating whether it is wind or impact-rated.
Reviewing the relative strengths and weaknesses of your doors is one of the essential steps you can take to increase your home’s strength in a hurricane or other natural disaster.
Here are some questions to ask when evaluating your exterior doors and their ability to resist wind and water damage.
The roof covering is one of your house’s first and most important defenses against hurricane winds and wind-driven rain, and unfortunately, it’s also often the weakest part of the roof.
Two of the most common causes for damage to asphalt shingle roof coverings in high-wind events are improper installation and use of shingles that are not rated for the wind speeds identified in the building code. It is essential to understand the wind-resistance ratings and special installation methods for asphalt shingles in high-wind, coastal regions.
If you do not have wind or impact-resistant skylights, you may want to consider replacing them with newer models that are tested and approved to resist wind pressure, windborne debris impacts, and hail.
The best time to replace skylights is during re-roofing. Removing the old roofing material will provide easy access to replace the skylights with wind- and impact-rated types that do not need any additional coverage in high-wind events like hailstorms, hurricanes, or tornadoes. This is important as it is not only inconvenient to cover skylights before a hurricane, but it is nearly impossible to protect them before a hailstorm or tornado strike.