Action Tips: Develop a Hurricane Disaster Plan

Whether you are helping to protect your own home or someone else's (i.e. an elderly neighbor), make sure to create a clear plan of action in case of a hurricane.

Find a Room

• Determine which room is best to withstand flooding and/or high winds. Consider a room with no windows in a central part of the house, such as a walk-in closet.
• Sometimes the safest spot won't be in your home but somewhere else in your community.
• Be sure to store your disaster kit in that room.

Determine Contact Phone Numbers

• Decide on one out-of-state friend or relative that your family or group will contact if anyone gets separated.
• Save emergency phone numbers (not just 911) to everyone's cell phones.

Plan Your Escape Routes

• Make sure all members of your family know the location of all possible exits in your house or apartment should you need to suddenly evacuate.
• Agree on a meeting place outside of your home. It should be far away enough that if your town were in bad shape, you could still make your way there (think several miles, but not hundreds).

Sources:

National Hurricane Center