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How early do you prepare for a hurricane? Do you begin gathering supplies in June? Do you begin buying water and batteries when weather looks bad? Or do you wait until the weather stations report an incident? Waiting until the last minute can leave you stranded without your most important necessities in the event of a real emergency. We have gathered hurricane preparation tips from local resources and come up with a list of “must haves.”

We suggest you stock the following nine items in your Hurricane Preparation Kit that will stay in your home at all times:

1. Water Reserves

   The American Red Cross suggests you have water supplies for at least three days. This means you have one gallon per day for each member of your household.

   https://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m4340160_Hurricane.pdf

2. Non-perishable Food

   The National Survival Initiative recommends the following food types (and reminds you to have the necessary plastic plates, utensils, and cups to go along with them):

• Canned juices
• Ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits, and vegetables
• Staples (salt, sugar, pepper, spices, etc.)
• High energy foods
• Vitamins
• Food for infants
• Comfort/stress foodhttp://hurricanesafety.org/prepare/hurricane-safety-checklists/

3. Flashlight and First Aid Kit

   Next, the National Hurricane Center recommends a flashlight and basic first aid kit. Along with the flashlight, of course, should be plenty of batteries to make each flashlight work properly for a couple of weeks.

   https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/ready.php?elq=996f8a8301544a6f9a72e6ca07b89d7e

4. Essential Medication

   The Modern Survival Guide suggests everyone have a two-week supply of medication.

   https://modernsurvivalblog.com/weather-preparedness/a-hurricane-preparedness-list/

5. Important Documents

   The State of Florida, in their Essential Guide to Hurricane Preparedness, says to have important documents located in a waterproof container near your hurricane kit.

   http://www.stateofflorida.com/articles/hurricane-preparedness-guide.aspx

6. Pet Supplies

   Your pet should be a part of your family plan. If you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them. Ask friends, relatives and others outside of the affected area whether they could shelter your animals. If you do not need to evacuate, WESH 2 in Orlando recommends essential pet food and medication be packed in a hurricane survival kit.

   http://www.wesh.com/article/hurricane-season-2018-a-wesh-2-first-alert-weather-survival-guide/9956101

7. Gas and Cash

   You may need gas to run generators or more importantly to evacuate. Also ATMs may be down and those of us use to paying with debit or credit may not have that availability with power outages so gas up and cash out!

8. Baby Wipes and Bug Spray
   

   Personally, as a Florida native and living through so many hurricanes, I recommend plenty of baby wipes and bug spray to be packed in your kit!

9. Chargers

   And last but not least, we recommend chargers for cellphones. While you might be out of power for a while, you could still be connected to cell service. So, purchase an extra charger or two that do not require plugs.

We hope this list is easy enough and simple enough to start a Hurricane Prep Kit today, rather than waiting until you hear an announcement on the radio!